The Swan

John Gould Fletcher 1886 (Little Rock) – 1950



Under a wall of bronze,
Where beeches dip and trail
Their branches in the water;
With red-tipped head and wings—
A beaked ship under sail—
There glides a single swan.

Under the autumn trees
He goes. The branches quiver,
Dance in the wraith-like water,
Which ripples beneath the sedge
With the slackening furrow that glides
In his wake when he is gone:
The beeches bow dark heads.

Into the windless dusk,
Where in mist great towers stand
Guarding a lonely strand,
That is bodiless and dim,
He speeds with easy stride;
And I would go beside,
Till the low brown hills divide
At last, for me and him.
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Submitted by halel on July 13, 2020

Modified on April 28, 2023

32 sec read
41

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABXAX XBBXXXX XCCDEEED
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 580
Words 108
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 8

John Gould Fletcher

John Gould Fletcher was an Imagist poet, author and authority on modern painting. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a socially prominent family. After attending Phillips Academy, Andover Fletcher went on to Harvard University from 1903 to 1907, when he dropped out shortly after his father's death. more…

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