We watch the bird’s ungainly gait on land and are told that
All the water in the ocean
Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.[174]
The perfect stillness of the surface of a sheet of water is marked by
The swan’s down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide
And neither way inclines.[175]
Again, we watch
A swan