Friday, February 19, 2016

How are poems "Wild Swans at Coole" as well as "Leda and the Swan" by Yeats related?

Both poems are about swans, as their titles indicate, and both poems are about change and loss.
In "Leda and the Swan," Leda changes by losing her innocence as she is brutally raped by Zeus disguised as a swan. The narrator wonders if Leda received "knowledge" from Zeus in exchange for being "mastered" by his "brute blood" and "indifference." Was there any redemption for her in this experience?
In "Wild Swans at Coole," the narrator watches 59 swans on the lake at Coole and regrets the changes that have come to him since he first viewed the swans on this lake 19 years ago. He writes:

And now my heart is sore.All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,The first time on this shore

The narrator doesn't spell out exactly what the changes are he has experienced, but change always involves loss, and these changes have bruised or left "sore" the narrator's heart. He contrasts his changes to the unchanging beauty of the swans. Unlike him:

Their hearts have not grown old

Both poems also rely heavily on imagery—showing what we can experience through sight, sound, touch, taste and smell—to convey the very different actions of the swans in each poem.

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