A swan: 'I have looked upon these brilliant creatures, and now my heart is sore' | Helen Sullivan

This is my last column in this series. 'Farewell, all joys!'This morning I learned the word "limn". It looked at first like a typo, and I almost ignored it. But I pressed on the letters on my phone, which caused its meaning to pop up in a little box, like a window appearing in a wall. To limn is to "depict or describe in painting or words".I was drinking cold coffee in my kitchen, and preparing to write this column - my last. Because I knew that I would do the swan, a large, long-necked water bird had started gliding around my mind, so it seemed clear that the word limn looks like a swan: the tall l with the tiny flick of a dipped head, and the letters after.I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All's changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread.Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can Her heart inform her tongue, -the swan's down-feather, That stands upon the swell at full of tide, And neither way inclines. Continue reading...