146 
THE WILD SWAN, 
Kings made laws a-many, * 
Laws both stern and strong, 
In the days of olden time, 
You to keep from wrong ; 
And o’er their palace-waters 
Ye went, a gallant show, 
And Surrey and his Geraldine, 
Beheld ye sailing slow. 
Tell me, Swan, I pray thee, 
Art of that high race, 
Or a sylvan creature 
From some far, lone place ? 
Saw ye in woody Athelney, 
True Alfred’s care and pain, 
Or, riding out among his men, 
Good King Canute the Dane? 
No, from ’mid the icebergs, 
Through long ages piled, 
Sometime ye were driven 
By the winter wild; 
