Page:Studies in Song - Swinburne (1880).djvu/99

 And the lines displaced, They scatter as wild swans parting adrift on the wan green waste.

At the hush of his word In a pause of his breath When the waters have heard His will that he saith, They stand as a flock penned close in its fold for division of death.

As a flock by division Of death to be thinned, As the shades in a vision Of spirits that sinned; So glimmer their shrouds and their sheetings as clouds on the stream of the wind.