From today's Writer's Almanac

[pegkerr]

I never ran across this poem while researching The Wild Swans, but I knew the old legend that swans sang only at their death. That was what I was getting at, a little bit, with the scene when Sean and Elias go to see Les Ballets de Trockederos and Sean silently cries while watching "The Dying Swan," the day before he tells Elias the diagnosis.

"The Silver Swan" by Anonymous.

The Silver Swan

The silver swan, who living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat,
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more:
Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes,
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.