Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
The Swans of Wilton
By AnonymousO,
Twenty abreast did go,
Like country girls bound for the church,
Sails set and all aglow!
With pouting breast in pure white dressed
Softly gliding in a row.
The perch in brazen coat,
The golden shuttles mermaids use
Shot past my crimson float;
Where swinish carp were snoring loud
Around the anchored boat.
The white swans bore in sail,
Their full, soft feathers puffing out
Like canvas in the gale;
And all the kine and dappled deer
Stood watching in the vale.
Strutted and puffed along,
Like canons in their full white gowns
Late for an evening song,
When up the vale the peevish bell
In vain has chided long.
Bore down the radiant stream!
As calm as holy hermits’ lives,
Or a play-tired infant’s dream;
Like fairy beds of last year’s snow,
Did these radiant creatures seem.