Edna St. Vincent Millay’s speaker watches wild swans pass overhead and turns inward, asking what her heart holds. Instead of wonder or peace, she finds only unanswered questions—nothing as thrilling or effortless as the birds in flight. She grows frustrated with her own restless, repetitive emotions, calling her heart “tiresome” and comparing it to a stuffy, airless house. So she decides to shut that inner room and turn outward, begging the swans to return over the town with their dangling legs and wild cries. The mood is yearning and bittersweet: the swans represent freedom, movement, and untamed beauty, while the speaker feels trapped by self-examination. She wants to escape thinking and simply feel alive, swept up in something larger than her own endless questions.
Wild Swans — Summary
I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over. And what did I see I had not seen before? Only a question less or a question more; Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying. Tiresome heart, forever living and dying, House without air, I leave you and lock your door. Wild swans, come over the town, come over The town again, trailing your legs and crying!