Change, Belief, and Pessimism in The Wild Swans at Coole, Easter 1916, and The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats Essay

From the poems studied so far, three of Yeats main concerns are change, beliefand pessimism that life and the future does not hold joy. The notion of change ispresent in all three poems, but different kinds of change are examined such aspersonal change (The Wild Swans at Coole), social change (Easter 1916), and globalchange (The Second Coming). The concept of belief is also displayed in all poems -in The Wild Swans at Coole it is the narrator s belief in himself in Easter 1916 it isthe belief of the revolutionaries and in The Second Coming it is religious belief.Pessimistic views on life are also exhibited in each poem, because of loss of love inThe Wild Swans at Coole, loss of life in Easter 1916, and the imminent end of theworld in The Second Coming. Many of Yeats poems deal with the concept of change in various forms. The WildSwans at Coole deals with change on a personal level. The narrator is reflecting uponthe changes in his own life in contrast to the constancy of nature. Though Yeats andthe world he knows have changed since he first counted the swans, the unwearied swans continue their lives. Passion or conquest are still essentially theirs becausetheir natures have not changed. They paddle on the lake lover by lover , living bythe instinct of their species, in contrast to Yeats whose heart is sore becausechange has affected him - All s changed since I...trod with a lighter tread . Theswans All suddenly mount And scatter before Yeats is ready, signifying Yeats unwillingness to change. Yeats sees the swans as emblems of the timelessness ofnature and beauty, as they do not perceive change, and though individuals such ashimself come and go, the species remains. This inconstancy in life creates for Yeatsa desire for immortality and a craving to understand the unity of being. Yeats feelsthat it is the changes that are entrenched in his own life that will inevitably causehis...

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