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 We bodged again, as I have been a swan
 With bootless labor swim against the tide
  And read more 
 We bodged again, as I have been a swan
 With bootless labor swim against the tide
  And spend her strength with overmatching waves. 
 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. 
 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. 
 The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself 
the singer of its own dirge.  
 The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself 
the singer of its own dirge. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Thus does the white swan, as he lies on the wet grass, when the 
Fates summon him, sing at read more 
 Thus does the white swan, as he lies on the wet grass, when the 
Fates summon him, sing at the fords of Maeander. 
 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. 
 The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul
 Of that waste place with joy
  Hidden in sorrow: at read more 
 The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul
 Of that waste place with joy
  Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear
   The warble was low, and full and clear.