“O Swallow, Swallow, flying South”

From “The Princess”   O SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South, Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.   O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each, That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North.   O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill, And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.   O were I thou that she might take me in, And lay me on her bosom, and her heart Would rock the snowy cradle till I died!   Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, Delaying as the tender ash delays To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?   O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown: Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, But in the North long since my nest is made.   O tell her, brief is life, but love is long, And brief the sun of summer in the North, And brief the moon of beauty in the South.   O Swallow, flying from the golden woods, Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine, And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.