On Receiving a Picture of Swans

With pensive grace, the melancholy Swan

Mourns o'er the tomb of luckless Phaethon;

On grassy banks the weeping poplars wave,

And guard with tender card the wat'ry grave.

Would that I might, should I too proudly claim

An Heav'nly parent, or a God-like fame;

When flown too high, and dash'd to depths below,

Receive such tribute as a Cygnus' woe!

The faithful bird, that dumbly floats along,

Sighs all the deeper for his want of song. H.P. Lovecraft