Swannies superstar and chief footy columnist for the Swannies website, Dave O’Shea, has discovered Shakespeare during this post Indochina Cup blues…

With the lack of recent Swannies’ functions, I have been having withdrawals so I have done some research and discovered that William Shakespeare wrote more about birds than any other poet in Western literature. (If National President, Phil “Fabbo” Johns, was a poet from the 17th century, Shakespeare would have written the second most).

But Fabbo and Shakespeare both share something in common. Their favourite bird is the glorious swan. Featured below are a couple of Shakespeare’s poems about the swan.

Sample #1

An earl I am, and Suffolk am I call’d. 
Be not offended, nature’s miracle, 
Thou art allotted to be ta’en by me: 
So doth the swan her downy cygnets save, 
Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings.
Yet, if this servile usage once offend. 
Go, and be free again, as Suffolk’s friend. 
(1 King Henry 6, 5.3.54-60)

Sample #2

With this, we charged again: but, out, alas! 
We bodged again; as I have seen a swan 
With bootless labour swim against the tide 
And spend her strength with over-matching waves. 
(3 King Henry 6 1.4.19-22)