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
  I told my mother "Mother I must leave you
  preserve my room but do not shed a tear
  Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
  it was half my fault and half the atmosphere"
  
  But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
  and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
  She said at last I was her finest lover
  and if she withered I would be to blame
  
  The judges said you missed it by a fraction
  rise up and brace your troops for the attack
  Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
  Oh see the men of action falling back
  
  But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
  I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
  My falsity had stung me like a hornet
  The poison sank and it paralysed my will
  
  I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
  that they had been deserted from above
  So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
  I'm listed with the enemies of love
  
  And long ago she said "I must be leaving,
  Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
  You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping
  Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan"
  
  So daily I renew my idle duty
  I touch her here and there -- I know my place
  I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
  and people call me traitor to my face