A Musical Instrument

WHAT was he doing the great god Pan

    Down in the reeds by the river？

    Spreading ruin and scattering¹ ban

    Splashing and paddling with hoofs² of a goat

    And breaking the golden lilies afloat

    With the dragon-fly on the river.

    He tore out a reed the great god Pan

    From the deep cool bed of the river；

    The limpid³ water turbidly⁴ ran

    And the broken lilies a-dying lay

    And the dragon-fly had fled away

    Ere he brought it out of the river.

    High on the shore sat the great god Pan

    While turbidly flow'd the river；

    And hack'd and hew'd as a great god can

    With his hard bleak⁵ steel at the patient reed

    Till there was not a sign of the leaf indeed

    To prove it fresh from the river.

    He cut it short did the great god Pan

    （How tall it stood in the river！）

    Then drew the pith like the heart of a man

    Steadily⁶ from the outside ring

    And notch'd the poor dry empty thing

    In holes as he sat by the river.

    'This is the way ' laugh'd the great god Pan

    （Laugh'd while he sat by the river）

    'The only way since gods began

    To make sweet music they could succeed.'

    Then dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed

    He blew in power by the river.

    Sweet sweet sweet O Pan！

    Piercing sweet by the river！

    Blinding sweet O great god Pan！

    The sun on the hill forgot to die

    And the lilies revived and the dragon-fly

    Came back to dream on the river.

    Yet half a beast is the great god Pan

    To laugh as he sits by the river

    Making a poet out of a man：

    The true gods sigh for the cost and pain—

    For the reed which grows nevermore again

    As a reed with the reeds of the river.