Swan Burning

So splashes can be seamed, and riot
Purely elegant; so discomfited widening
Glances harmonise with wild, ordained wings.
The train-left gelled-out form ennobles water,
Whatever branches snagged flaxed quills.
And other rivery things fear neckpace, or bustle
Dully, surlily, fast, and only
Some slime and weed ties fast in eddies,
With burlesque taste for what is true.

On the bank to keep in sight
You have to mud ankles to face,
Have to slough and fool about and paddle,
In non-change-of-state mirey stuff,
To keep looking at that which is better than solid,
Looks like air and looks at earth,
At you - the hiss hangs in the wet.

And the language is barred,
And the chase is barred,
The bank is discouraged, the forest reserved,
Chopped down forest for Bagehot Queen.

But it crosses the mind with bright surety -
Suppose you rode full princelily, bore on leopards
And lilies 'midst leopards and swans, were named Henry,
Or Edward, or Lionel, or Thomas of Woodstock,
Suppose better you reared your own fledgey throat,
Careered on that richened muck, spoke without words,
Turn away still would she. No nature, no Queen murkifies,

That affair is not banned, but disallowed wholly,
In a sacred and lace disacknowledgement.