Dim alabaster gleams—a lonely swan

Warbled his death-chant; and a poet stood

Listening to that strange music, as it shook

The lilies on the wave; and made the pines

And all the laurels of the haunted shore

Thrill to its passion. Oh! the tones were sweet,

Even painfully—as with the sweetness wrung

From parting love; and to the poet’s thought

This was their language.

“Summer! I depart—