The silver swan

The silver swan who, living, had no note,
when death approached, unlocked her silent throat.

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sung her first and last, and sung no more:

"Farewell all joys, O death come close [mine]1 eyes.
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise."

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Bachlund, Baxter, Rorem: "my"

Authorship

by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , "The silver swan", published 1612

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Martin Amlin , "The silver swanne", 1984 [soprano and piano], from Four Songs on Texts of Anonymous Poets, no. 2.
by Gary Bachlund , "The silver swan", 1966. [SATB chorus a cappella]
by Garth Baxter (1946-) , "The silver swan" [voice and guitar or SATB chorus], from Three madrigals, no. 2.
by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) , "The silver swan" [madrigal a cappella]
by Ned Rorem (1923-) , "The silver swan", 1949. [high voice and piano]
by Eric Harding Thiman (1900-1975) , "The silver swan"

GER German (Martin Stock) , "Der Silberschwan", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Dwain Richardson) , "Le cygne argenté", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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