![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrt1SzZfi7MDWQ90TBECI2Jti1YbJ3wVrYzCNSAoF-47Qy4yvhmkmYZY3zDrsDqh1kFfq31vNS7XPtnyjIcw5My22TtFMXT3DPw4HrIvbBxu5cdrb55WrUT9HVXU4ZvHr9X1tanRBuik/s320/AnnaDyingSw.jpg)
The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. Inspired by swans that Anna Pavlova had seen in public parks and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Dying Swan", Anna Pavlova asked Michel Fokine, who had also read the poem, to create a solo ballet for her for a 1905 concert being given by artists from the chorus of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera.