"The Swan"

Rainer Maria Rilke

This clumsy living that moves lumbering

as if in ropes through what is not done

reminds us of the awkward way the swan walks.

And to die, which is a letting go

of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,

is like the swan when he nervously lets himself down

into the water, which receives him gaily

and which flows joyfully under

and after him, wave after wave,

while the swan, unmoving and marvelously calm,

is pleased to be carried, each minute more fully grown,

more like a king, composed, farther and farther on.