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 Coal-black is better than another hue
 In that it scorns to bear another hue;
  For all the read more 
 Coal-black is better than another hue
 In that it scorns to bear another hue;
  For all the water in the ocean
   Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,
    Although she lave them hourly in the flood. 
 There's a double beauty whenever a swan
 Swims on a lake with her double thereon.  
 There's a double beauty whenever a swan
 Swims on a lake with her double thereon. 
 And over the pond are sailing
 Two swans all white as snow;
  Sweet voices mysteriously wailing
 read more 
 And over the pond are sailing
 Two swans all white as snow;
  Sweet voices mysteriously wailing
   Pierce through me as onward they go.
    They sail along, and a ringing
     Sweet melody rises on high;
      And when the swans begin singing,
       They presently must die. 
 You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am 
infinitely inferior to the swans. When they read more 
 You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am 
infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching 
death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they 
have in going to the God they serve. 
 I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
 Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,
 read more 
 I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
 Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,
  And from the organ-pipe of fraity sings
   His soul and body to their lasting rest. 
 The swan, like the soul of the poet,
 By the dull world is ill understood.  
 The swan, like the soul of the poet,
 By the dull world is ill understood. 
 Some full-breasted swan
 That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
  Ruffles her pure cold plume, and read more 
 Some full-breasted swan
 That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
  Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
   With swarthy webs. 
 The stately-sailing swan
 Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
  And, arching proud his neck, with read more 
 The stately-sailing swan
 Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
  And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
   Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle,
    Protective of his young.