The Wild Swans at Coole Death Quotes

The emphasis on "autumn" and "dry" is important. We think of autumn as the prelude to winter, a time of change (just think of leaves). "Dry" reminds us of a drought or desert, something that doesn't have life. These images suggest that nature is on the verge of death, as if its tranquility has more in common with death than life.

The word "twilight" is associated with death and endings (as in, "the twilight of my life"), not just hunky teen vampires. The poem is putting us in the mood for the contemplation of death that is to come.

Fifty-nine is a totally random number. It seems deliberately uneven. It really does seem like one of the swans is missing, that it has disappeared or even died. The uneasiness we feel here—the sense of absence we feel—suggests that the speaker is reluctant to speak about death explicitly.

The speaker's inability to finish what he is doing, and the swans' sudden departure ("suddenly mount," "scatter"), point to the suddenness of death and the abandonment that goes with it.

The speaker used to tread "with a lighter tread," but doesn't anymore. That carefree part of his life is over, dead and gone. It is not totally ridiculous to think of life as a series of deaths—things change ("all's changed"), people enter and leave our lives, etc.

The swans' disappearance is a kind of death. In a way, the speaker imagines the swans leaving him because it is easier to accept their "death" than to think about the undeniable truth that he, too, (and other people he knows) will die someday.