The poems "Afterwards" by Thomas Hardy and "The Wild Swans at Coole" by W.B. Yeats both use vivid nature imagery to enhance their central natural ideas and contrast it to humanity. Both poets paint obvious pictures to convey their fascination of nature; although, Yeats and Hardy portray their fascinations and lust for nature from 2 different points of view. The poets' images and meanings are delivered to us via a unique selection of diction and certain phrases, structured especially to expose nature's beauty.

Yeats distinguishes nature as 2 different parts - animals/creatures part of nature, and the atmospherically wholesome portion of nature. He describes the trees as beauties in "trees in their autumn beauty", and woodlands as being "dry", stable and secure while he seems overtaken by the sun's beautiful preset "under the October twilight." We can easily visualize this striking sun-halfway-in-the-sky scene, which makes this image vivid...