In rilke’s “the swan,” the water that the swan enters is a symbol for beauty death heaven man

Heaven.

Explanation:

Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "The Swan" is just a simple twelve lined poem, with three lines each in the first two paragraphs and the rest six lines in the last paragraph. This poem deals mainly with the theme of death and the release of life after one dies.

The poet compares the very act of the swan waddling into the water as a sign of a person slowly walking into the hands of death and the release of his life responsibilities and tortures. Death is taken as a release from all forms of living, and the pain and responsibilities all lifted away from him. By the imagery of the swan entering into the water gracefully, we too shall go to heaven, leaving "waves" as a swan leaves ripples on the surface of the water.