Death of the swan

01. The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
02. The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
03. Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
04. And after many a summer dies the swan.
05. Me only cruel immortality
06. Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
07. Here at the quiet limit of the world,
08. A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream
09. The ever-silent spaces of the East,
10. Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
11. Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man -
12. So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
13. Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed
14. To his great heart none other than a God!
15. I asked thee, "Give me immortality."
16. Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,
17. Like wealthy men who care not how they give.
18. But thy strong Hours indignant worked their wills,
19. And beat me down and marred and wasted me,
20. And though they could not end me, left me maimed
21. To dwell in presence of immortal youth,
22. Immortal age beside immortal youth,
23. And all I was, in ashes. Can thy love,
24. Thy beauty, make amends, though even now,
25. Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,
26. Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears
27. To hear me? Let me go: take back thy gift:
28. Why should a man desire in any way
29. To vary from the kindly race of men,
30. Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
31. Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
32. A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
33. A glimpse of that dark world where I was born.
34. Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
35. From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
36. And bosom beating with a heart renewed.
37. Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,
38. Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
39. Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
40. Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
41. And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,
42. And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
43. Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
44. In silence, then before thine answer given
45. Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.
46. Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
47. And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
48. In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
49. "The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts."
50. Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
51. In days far-off, and with what other eyes
52. I used to watch -if I be he that watched -
53. The lucid outline forming round thee; saw
54. The dim curls kindle into sunny rings;
55. Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
56. Glow with the glow that slowly crimsoned all
57. Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,
58. Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm
59. With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
60. Of April, and could hear the lips that kissed
61. Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet,
62. Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
63. While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.
64. Yet hold me not for ever in thine East:
65. How can my nature longer mix with thine?
66. Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold
67. Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
68. Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam
69. Floats up from those dim fields about the homes
70. Of happy men that have the power to die,
71. And grassy barrows of the happier dead.
72. Release me, and restore me to the ground;
73. Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:
74. Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
75. I earth in earth forget these empty courts,
76. And thee returning on thy silver wheels.

Lord Alfred Tennyson, "Tithonus".

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