“With that I saw two swans of goodly hue
Come softly swimming down along the Lee:
Two fairer birds I yet did never see;
The snow which doth the top of Pindus strow
Did never whiter show,
Nor Jove himself, when he a swan would be
For love of Leda, whiter did appear”

Source: Prothalamion (1596), Line 37

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "With that I saw two swans of goodly hue Come softly swimming down along the Lee: Two fairer birds I yet did never see…" by Edmund Spenser?
Edmund Spenser photo
Edmund Spenser 53
English poet 1552–1599

Related quotes

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas photo

“And swans seem whiter if swart crowes be by.”

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) French writer

First Week, First Day.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)

“Did not Jupiter transforme himselfe into the shape of Amphitrio to embrace Alcmæna; into the form of a swan to enjoy Leda; into a Bull to beguile Io; into a showre of gold to win Danae?”

Source: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 93. Compare: "Jupiter himself was turned into a satyr, a shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not for love", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, sec ii, mem. i, subs. 1.

Dafydd ap Gwilym photo

“There never has been a time when I did not fall in love with one or two in a single day.”

Dafydd ap Gwilym (1320–1380) Welsh poet

Ni bu amser na charwn…
Yn y dydd ai un ai dwy.
"Merched Llanbadarn" (The Girls of Llanbadarn), line 13; translation from Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (ed. and trans.) A Celtic Miscellany (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1951] 1975) p. 209.

Gene Kelly photo
Victor Hugo photo
Ted Nugent photo

“Mr. Trump didn’t create this economic swan dive to the street. Our politicians did.”

Ted Nugent (1948) American rock musician

Give Trump the Medal of Freedom (August 7, 2015)

James Russell Lowell photo

“The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow
Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Epistle to George William Curtis (1874)

William Faulkner photo
Epictetus photo

“Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Book I, ch. 16.
Discourses

Related topics