Final answer:
W.B. Yeats' 'The Wild Swans at Coole' is a lyric poem due to its expression of personal emotions with musical quality through rhythm and rhyme. The structured stanzas and use of internal rhyme and symbolism further emphasize the imagery and themes, while the poem's recitation enhances its oral art form.
Step-by-step explanation:
“The Wild Swans at Coole” is considered a lyric poem because it expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of the poet, W.B. Yeats, in a musical and evocative manner. The use of rhyme and rhythm contributes to its lyrical quality, making it suitable for singing or reciting, much like the works of modernist poets Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, who also used distinct rhythms and rhymes that were complemented by music. The poem’s form, such as the intentional structuring of stanzas and internal rhymes, plays a significant role in enhancing the poem’s meaning and the reader’s experience of the imagery, which includes scenes of nature and reflections on change and aging.
For example, the internal rhyme of ‘feather’ with ‘heather,’ and the repetition of the word ‘feather’ in “The Wild Swans at Coole” highlight the significance of the imagery used by the poet to draw parallels between his own experiences and the larger themes of nature and time. The indentation of lines within stanzas and the use of symbolic references, such as the “eagle-feather,” contribute to the richness and texture of the poem, encouraging readers to engage deeply with its content and symbolism.
Poetry, as an oral art, becomes alive when read aloud, guided by the line structure and the breath of the reader. In Yeats’ poem, various line lengths and their effects can be noted just as in the examples given by other poets, inviting interpretation and reflection on the complex interplay between form and meaning.