With that, I saw two swans of goodly hue,

Come softly swimming down along the Lee…

So purely white they were,

That even the gentle stream, the which them bare,

Seemed foul to them, and bade his billows spare

To wet their silken feathers, lest they might

Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair

And mar their beauties bright,

That shone as Heaven's light,

Against their bridal day, which was not long:

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

by Edmund Spenser (1552–99), English poet , in Prothalamion  (1596) l. 37