Album of Swan Songs

By Fatima Tassaduq • May 25th, 2009 • Category: Politics • No Responses

Gibbons:

The silver Swan, who living had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
“Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
“More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise.”

Our turbulent history has remained rife with the last laughs and the last hurrahs of the dictators. From Ayub Khan to Yahya Khan to Ziaul Haq to Musharraf, these tinpot despots have sucked the life out of the nation and it’s a miracle that still this great nation has got the guts and passions to stand up to any challenge. From earthquake of 2005 to the Internally Displaced People of 2009, nation has shown and proved it’s mettle.

Tennyson:

The wild swan’s death-hymn took the soul
Of that waste place with joy
Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear
The warble was low, and full and clear; …
But anon her awful jubilant voice,
With a music strange and manifold,
Flow’d forth on a carol free and bold;
As when a mighty people rejoice
With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold…

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