The Dying Swan

The Dying Swan is a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

Related Topics:
Swan - Lord Alfred Tennyson

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: I.

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:The plain was grassy, wild and bare,

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:Wide, wild, and open to the air,

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:Which had built up everywhere

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: An under-roof of doleful gray.

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:With an inner voice the river ran,

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:Adown it floated a dying swan,

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: And loudly did lament.

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: It was the middle of the day.

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:Ever the weary wind went on,

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: And took the reed-tops as it went.

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: II.

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:Some blue peaks in the distance rose,

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:And white against the cold-white sky,

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:Shone out their crowning snows.

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: One willow over the river wept,

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:And shook the wave as the wind did sigh;

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:Above in the wind was the swallow,

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: Chasing itself at its own wild will,

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: And far thro? the marish green and still

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: The tangled water-courses slept,

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:Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow.

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: III.

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:The wild swan?s death-hymn took the soul

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:Of that waste place with joy

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:Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear

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:The warble was low, and full and clear;

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:And floating about the under-sky,

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:Prevailing in weakness, the coronach stole

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:Sometimes afar, and sometimes anear;

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:But anon her awful jubilant voice,

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:With a music strange and manifold,

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:Flow?d forth on a carol free and bold;

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:As when a mighty people rejoice

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:With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold,

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:And the tumult of their acclaim is roll?d

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:Thro? the open gates of the city afar,

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:To the shepherd who watcheth the evening star.

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:And the creeping mosses and clambering weeds,

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:And the willow-branches hoar and dank,

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:And the wavy swell of the soughing reeds,

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:And the wave-worn horns of the echoing bank,

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:And the silvery marish-flowers that throng

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:The desolate creeks and pools among,

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:Were flooded over with eddying song.

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