The Swan by Rainer Maria Rilke

This labouring of ours with all that remains undone,
as if still bound to it,
is like the lumbering gait of the swan.

And then our dying - releasing ourselves
from the very ground on which we stood -
is like the way he hesitantly lowers himself into the water.

It gently receives him,
and, gladly yielding, flows back beneath him,
as wave follows wave,
while he, now wholly serence and sure,
with regal composure,
allows himself to glide.