Traditionally, a swan is a symbol of beauty and perfection in Western literature and art. In “Swan and Shadow,” the swan represents the fleeting and momentary existence of beauty. Whether it is the beauty of a creation of nature or a joyous instant, it cannot be preserved as it was, but it can be remembered in memory or written about as in the poem, all forming “memorial shades” (Line 22). That is why the swan and its shadow in the poem are similar in shape (due to the lineation) but dissimilar in content, rhyme, and number of syllables per line; even the swan’s shadow is not the swan. The memory of a beautiful moment is not the moment itself but is beautiful in its own right.

Shadow represents the reflection of the swan in the water and in the eye, and it also represents darkness. The reflection symbolizes the memory of a moment. Even while one is experiencing a moment, the mind tries to register and process it, just as the speaker’s eye notices the swan and the brain recognizes it as a swan. “Swan and Shadow” is an impression (a reflection) of the swan, a different entity from the living swan.