The Wild Swans

In “The Wild Swans at Coole” by William Butler Yeats is about a narrator who feels lonely and wants to fly away from his problems and become a swan.
“Are nine-and-fifty swans,” meaning there is room for one more swan in the group. Because swans usually fly together in even numbers because each swan has mate and the narrator is feeling left out because he doesn’t have a mate and his life isn’t going that well.
“I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, / and now my heart is sore,” the narrator is putting all his feelings in the swans. The swans symbolize the freedom that he doesn’t have and wishes he could get by watching the swans. The swans are able to do fly around and do whatever they wish with their time as the narrator has to deal with his life. When the narrator doesn’t notice, all the swans fly away. Leaving him to wonder where they have flown off too and left him by himself.
In “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is about a young generation who thinks they are invisible and are able to do anything they want. This poem is really short compared to Yeats’ poem; Brook’s poem only has 10 lines to Yeats 51 lines. The poem uses “we” several times to portray the deadly sins the young group of boys are breaking. The author also uses “thin” and “jazz” as verbs in her poem to symbolize then invisible of the group of guys. In her last line, “We die soon,” symbolizes the mindset of the guys; as it won’t last long before they have to get jobs and enter the real world.
Andrew Hudgins writes a parody of the “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “We Real Cool,” which is called “The Wild Swans Skip School.” Hudgins is mocking Yeats by letting him know that swans aren’t anything more than simple birds. “We beat wings. / We fly rings,” as the swans are just regular birds and they don’t symbolize anything that Yeats is looking for in his life.