Cycnus

Man into Swan

 

More bad luck for Phaëthon’s family, this time his cousin Cycnus.

 

Soon he feels

His utterance shrill and weak: his streaming locks

Soft snowy plumes displace: high from his chest,

His lengthen'd neck extends: a filmy web

Unites his ruddy toes: his sides are cloth'd

With quills and feathers: where his mouth was seen

Expanded, now a blunted beak obtains;

And Cycnus stands a bird;—but bird unknown

In days of yore. Mistrustful still of Jove,

His heaven he shuns; as mindful of the flames

From thence unjustly hurl'd. Wide lakes and ponds

He seeks to habit now;—indignant shuns

What favors fire, and joys in purling streams.