Comments on: notes for a poem

By: don't confuse the narrator

don't confuse the narrator — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:15:01 +0000

I don’t think the bird in the photo looks particularly graceful, but, true, I was very conscious that I didn’t want to upset them.

By: Mike Grace

Mike Grace — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 23:05:14 +0000

As my father says, always be like a swan.

Graceful, beautiful, and able to break a man’s arm if he upsets you.

By: don't confuse the narrator

don't confuse the narrator — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:06:20 +0000

What sort of a poet isn’t prepared to take risks? (And which poet doesn’t have a poem that includes swans?)

Is a madrigal a poem or a song? Does it matter? (Whichever it is, that’s pretty fine.)

By: Peter J Ross

Peter J Ross — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:23:13 +0000

Writing a poem that includes swans is risky. From Homer to Yeats, the famous poets have got all aspects of the image covered.

But my favourite swan-related poem is anonymous.

The silver swan, who, living, had no note,
when death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast upon the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
“Farewell, all joys! O death, come close mine eyes!
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.”

(It’s anonymous in the sense that Orlando Gibbons is only almost certainly the author.)