by Coleridge · Cluster: Birds · Music and Song · Nightingale
Abstract
A two-line satirical epigram wishing certain bad singers would die before they sing, punning on the swan-song topos.
Connections
Motifs: Music and Song, Birds Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society Forms & Genres: Epigram, Satire
Testo integrale / Full text
Swans sing before they die—’twere no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.
First published in An. Anth., 1800. Included in Keepsake, 1829, p.
277; Essays, &c., 1850, ii. 988. First collected in 1834.