The Swans of Wilton
George Walter
Thornbury
Thornbury, George Walter
W. T.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Fralick
Kaitlyn
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poet attribution: the Chambers’s Journal ledger entry lists the author as Walter Thornbury, with payment of 10s 6d (NLS 341/310). (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
3
14
353
224
O how the swans of Wilton
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The Swans of Wilto
n.
O how the swans of Wilton
Twenty abreast did go !
Like country brides bound to the church,
Sails set, and all aglow,
With pouting breast, in pure white dressed,
Soft gliding in a row.
Where through the weeds’ green fleeces,
The perch in brazen coat,
Like golden shuttles mermaids use,
Shot past my crimson float,
Where swinish carp were snorting loud
Around the anchored boat.
Adown the gentle river
The white swans bore in sail,
Their full soft feathers puffing out
Like canvas in a gale ;
And all the kine and dappled deer
Stood watching in the vale.
The stately swans of Wilton
Strutted and puffed along,
Like canons in their full white gowns,
Late for the even-song,
When up the close, the peevish bell
In vain has chided long.
O how the swans of Wilton
Bore down the radiant stream !
As calm as holy hermits lives,
Or a play-tired infant’s dream.
Like fairy beds of last year’s snow,
Did those radiant creatures seem !
W. T.