The Wild Swans at Coole Man and the Natural World Quotes

The swans "suddenly mount" and "scatter." The swans abandon the speaker, in a way that foreshadows his vision at the end. He's doomed to be abandoned by these swans (as he sees it), but they'll be moving on, unchanged, to impress some other folks.

Nature, in all its beauty, makes the speaker feel sad. Or maybe it doesn't. Just because he says "and" doesn't mean the image of the swan causes him to be sad. Maybe he just means "Now, at this moment, my heart is sore, even though I have looked upon those brilliant creatures." He may be ten times more depressing without these swans around!

The swans are "unwearied still." Despite everything that has happened in the world, they remain unaffected. While this seems enviable (they just go on paddling), it's also kind of a problem. They are "still," a word that here and elsewhere in the poem reminds us of a lack of change, but also of a lack of growth and development.