I’ve never been to Thessaly, and Ida’s vales may never see
Where gods have doffed divinity for wanton love and play;
But breath of Hellas wafted me a pastoral from Arcady
As in a park beside the sea, I saw a god today!
No troupe of satyrs followed him, who piped among the coverts dim
Where cedars crowd the rushy rim to grimace in the lake;
His trouser-legs were stiff and prim, to hide each shaggy, goatish limb,
But oh! the lyric eyes of him no dryad might mistake!
He piped along the plashy strand, and largesse cast on lake and land
Of notes that rippled from his hand to shame the meadow lark.
Or by the thicket’s marge would stand, while eyes of twinkling mischief scanned
The tots who danced a saraband around the crowded park.
He lounged beneath a rown-tree, and from his pipe blew full and free
A liquid, lilting melody for teasing tuneful toes;
And lovers caught the ecstasy, and age forgot its reverie
To tread a measure trippingly between the laurel rows.
The cadence thrilled the cedar shade, and twinkling rills of rhythm made
That echoed through the alder glade, and o’er the meadows ran;
Then warming to his ancient trade the piper thrilled a serenade
That wrung the heart of man and maid, and ‘stablished him as Pan.
But when, adrift to lyric lays that summoned Thracian yesterdays,
The dancers whirled in wayward ways attuned to antic rhymes,
Down dropping through the summer haze the call pealed out to Vesper praise:
The dancers froze in dread amaze to hear the scolding chimes.
Then Pan withdrew him furtively, the dancers ceased their revelry,
Each eyed his partner bashfully, and breathed a chastened sigh;
But no one followed Pan, to see, outstretched beneath a guarding tree,
A god who writhed in misery because he could not die!
(Burnett A. Ward)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, Sadness Poems, Nature Poems, Summer Poems, Praise Poems, Dancing Poems, Error & Mistake PoemsBased on Keywords: doffed, dryad, hellas, stablished, largesse, troupe, thessaly, attuned, pealed, coverts, scolding