Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
And the judges watched us from the other side
Among other things  the swan symbolizes  poetry and the poet her- and himself. Background here is the swan was sacred to Apoll, the god of the arts, the legend that when the otherwise relatively mute swan sings a beautiful song when the animal dies (hence “swan song”). 
 
 Homer was called the Swan of Meander, Vergil the Swan of Mantua. Most important for the interpretation of this song is that William Shakespeare was called The Swan of Avon, the Avon being the river flowing through Shaekspeare’s birth place Stratford. 
 

The Traitor