Summary

“The Swan” opens immediately in a mode of delightful questioning, in which the exuberant speaker asks a second person, singular interlocutor, “you,” whether she has also shared in the sight of a swan – “Did you too see, it drifting all, night on, the black river?” (1). Then, the speaker zooms in on this sighting, inquiring immediately afterwards, “Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silver air” (2).

Continuing in this excited interrogative mode, the speaker, in attempting to confirm a shared observation of the swan with the “you,” shares a description of how the swan looks. The speaker’s language is notably figurative, emphasizing the pale whiteness of the swan’s feathers – the swan is “An armful of white blossoms, / A perfect commotion of silk and linen … a snowbank, a bank of lilies,” which only more sharply contrasts the dark coloration of its...