“O Swallow, Swallow, flying South”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

From “The Princess”

O SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South,

Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,

And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.

O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,

That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,

And dark and true and tender is the North.

O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light

Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,

And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.

O were I thou that she might take me in,

And lay me on her bosom, and her heart

Would rock the snowy cradle till I died!

Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,

Delaying as the tender ash delays

To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?

O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown:

Say to her, I do but wanton in the South,

But in the North long since my nest is made.

O tell her, brief is life, but love is long,

And brief the sun of summer in the North,

And brief the moon of beauty in the South.

O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,

Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,

And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.