MUTE SWANS CANNOT CRY ALOUD

mute swans cannot cry aloud

I whisper to myself in dreams

how infinitely sad it seems to me

until I consider that silence may be

on occasion, 

more beautiful than likewise, the lilies

speak through gliding

through lifting your wings

in a silver, silver sheen fathomless

let flight speak for you

or floating, this will do as much

or not at all

would some understand you anyway

float on uncomprehended

upon the waters visionary

expressing the soul

far from trouble

in what music there is 

in being itself, without language

untrifled with

commissioned by angels and emblematic of (to me) 

what I cannot get into my poem

no matter how much I long to.

mary angela douglas 4 december 2023

P.S. Strangely, I found out after writing this poem that mute swans are not actually mute. they are, according to Wikipedia much less vocal than other species of swans though they are still called mute.

But my poem is not about natural history, my poem is about the swan as an emblem of beauty in poetry for centuries and in the poetic world if something is called a muted swan, it is, in fact muted. It is also a fact that the swan in this sort of image, and symbolism whatever habits its counterpart has in biological nomenclature, the swan as symbol truly has been muted in so called postmodern poetry.

as have as much as possible, I believe any poet now referring earnestly to the swan as symbol, unless and until it can be made into some kind of political imagery.