I'm sure this has no direct meaning to the song, but the work of poet W.B.Yeats had a lot of swan symbolism. One inparticular - The Wild Swans at Coole - mentioned "nine and fifty swans". The poignant part here is that swans mate for life, so the fact that Yeats was seeing an odd number of swans was actually a reflection on his own underlying fear of being alone as he ages and the yearning for his one love. Whenever I hear this song - my favourite on this album - I wonder whether Sufjan has read Yeats' work or whether he is aware of the "significance" of also seeing an odd number of swans....
Wow. These are all great comments, thanks.
I'm sure this has no direct meaning to the song, but the work of poet W.B.Yeats had a lot of swan symbolism. One inparticular - The Wild Swans at Coole - mentioned "nine and fifty swans". The poignant part here is that swans mate for life, so the fact that Yeats was seeing an odd number of swans was actually a reflection on his own underlying fear of being alone as he ages and the yearning for his one love. Whenever I hear this song - my favourite on this album - I wonder whether Sufjan has read Yeats' work or whether he is aware of the "significance" of also seeing an odd number of swans....