Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Then if he lose he makes a swanlike end,
read more

Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Then if he lose he makes a swanlike end,
Fading in music.

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
Where nothing save the waves and I
May hear our mutual read more

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
Where nothing save the waves and I
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;
There, swan-like, let me sing and die.

Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue--the swan's down-feather
That read more

Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue--the swan's down-feather
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.

The dying swan, when years her temples pierce,
In music-strains breathes out her life and verse,
And, read more

The dying swan, when years her temples pierce,
In music-strains breathes out her life and verse,
And, chanting her own dirge, tides on her wat'ry hearse.

The immortal swan that did her life deplore.

The immortal swan that did her life deplore.

Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings,
Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings:
read more

Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings,
Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings:
Live so, my Love, that when death shall come,
Swan-like and sweet it may waft thee home.

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.

The swan on still St. Mary's lake
Float double, swan and shadow!

The swan on still St. Mary's lake
Float double, swan and shadow!

The swan in the pool is singing,
And up and down doth he steer,
And, singing gently read more

The swan in the pool is singing,
And up and down doth he steer,
And, singing gently ever,
Dips under the water clear.