Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
III. Loves BeginningsO Swallow, Swallow, flying South
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892)O S
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
And dark and true and tender is the North.
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,
And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.
And lay me on her bosom, and her heart
Would rock the snowy cradle till I died!
Delaying as the tender ash delays
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?
Say to her, I do but wanton in the South,
But in the North long since my nest is made.
And brief the sun of summer in the North,
And brief the moon of beauty in the South.
Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.