The Inevitability of Time

Time is a major thread throughout the poem as the speaker comes to terms with their impending mortality. From the very first lines, a specific moment is established: “The trees are in their autumn beauty, / The woodland paths are dry, / Under the October twilight” (Lines 1-3). The setting is autumn and twilight, the soft and dim moments just after sunset. Each of these is a transitory state that leads into a period of darkness, and as such are often associated with the later years of a person’s life — the “twilight years.” It’s implied that the speaker is approaching this stage of their life (the poet was 52 when this poem was published, a much more advanced age than what it’s seen as today). There is also a suggestion of time in the way there are 59 swans present, with the speaker making...