The Wild Swans at Coole

In the Esoteric Yeats Ellmann describes the affect of Yeats personal life on his poetry and the role that his state of mind plays in his verse. Tone and narration still appear to be the most striking shifts throughout his pieces. In his In the Seven Wood there was a clear tone of disillusionment and disenchantment, which makes sense considering these were written when he was unhappy and suffering, but they also have a searching explorative nature to them as well. They deal with women, and beauty in juxtaposition with decay and death, which makes sense chronologically since these were before The Swan at Coole, at which point he is married and decidedly happier. Happy Townland, as well as other poems, speak of land, sea, and travel- a journey to somewhere, or a dream of somewhere, there is an element of escapism and dissatisfaction combined with a fear that what life has to offer is bleak and disappointing. The Wilde Swan at Coole is less concerned with leaving and more concerned with the more adult pursuit of understanding his environment.
It seems that The seven Wood and The Wilde Swan at Coole occur on two different planes; In The Seven wood is somewhere in the middle, the earth’s surface perhaps and The Wilde Swan at Coole has taken a plunge (or descent) down into the earth. Though the earlier poems are darker they are also more cheerful in a counterintuitive way. Perhaps since he is spewing his dissatisfaction onto the page he is also free to include more colorful imagery, whereas in The Wilde Swan at Coole is so deeply steeped in more technical aspects that, though they appear less intensely dark, they are in fact more disturbing. In The phases of the Moon both Yeats subject matter and tone are on the more reflective: “Aherne. Sing me the changes of the moon once more;” and while it does describe phases of feeling and being depending on the moons phases it is ultimately more personal, reflecting a personal obsession and fear of death. It is interesting that he is able to discuss a form of death and decay in this poem without the obvious sort of subjectivity that we see later. Though “Body and soul cast out and cast away Beyond the visible world,” by the last line “The first thin crescent is wheeled round once more.” This is to say that the cycle begins again. Stylistically it is apparent that, though In the Seven Wood may have a theme of searching, here Yeats, the poet, is searching. Ellmann asserts, “In the end everything is stamped with his personality and brought into line with his work.” (6) Though his personality is undoubtedly in all his work, and in the end of the Phases of the moon, for the body of the poem he seems unusually removed, perhaps the further away he is within a poem the further he feels he is form the subject matter. First and foremost this poem is not in first person, even of sometimes he is not meant to be the narrator even when it is in first person, still it makes the piece seem more personal. Another interesting difference between The Swan at Coole and In the Seven Wood is the more realistic scientific slant. Though there are still traces of the magic and occult in the way the effects of the phases are described. In Memory of Major Robert Gregory, Upon a lady dying, and Solomon to Sheba, the subject is markedly less richly layered, when compared to Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland, perhaps because he has chosen to use specific themes as an older writer as opposed to his earlier works where he was more inclusive. It seem seems as though his earlier work is based on a desire to understand Ireland, as well as mythology and dissect and describe these themes in a scientific manner, whereas his later work is more sharply focused on the passing of time and ultimately how this passing of time effects his immortality.