Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Musical Instrument
The DayPoems Poetry Collection
Timothy Bovee, editor
www.daypoems.net



  Click on the bonsai for the next poem.



DayPoems Forum

Click to submit poems to DayPoems, comment on DayPoems or a poem within, comment on other poetry sites, update links, or simply get in touch. DayPoems Forum.

DayPoems Front

Poetry Whirl
  Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Wikipedia
  Google Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  Latest Poetry News

Indexes
  Poems
  Poets
  Editor's poems
  Poetry Places

Poetry Places
  Seashore Poetry Critiques
  American Cinqu@in... the e-zine of the five-line poem
  Poetic Landscapes
  Poems by Vasko Popa
  Reid, Thom - Lost Blues Lounge
  Judge, Gordon - GeoVerse

Nodes powered by
Open Directory Project<br>at dmoz.org
Open Directory Project at dmoz.org


DayPoems Favorites

  PORT: An Online Visual Arts Journal
  A Poet on a Magical Journey Home
  Chronicles of a Sea Woman
  Parallels Studio
  Bipolar Poetry
  Mantra.X
  Poetry, Film and Books
  Poetry Archive

  Project Gutenberg, a huge collection of books as text, produced as a volunteer enterprise starting in 1990. This is the source of the first poetry placed on DayPoems.
  Tina Blue's Beginner's Guide to Prosody, exactly what the title says, and well worth reading.
  Epicanthic Fold: "If a guy somewhere in Asia makes a blog and no one reads it, does it really exist?"
  popomo.net, miniature, minimalist-inspired sculptures created from industrial cereamics, an art project at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
  pink.popomo.net, More projects from Portland
  oarena.net, Furby, Eliza, Mr_Friss and Miss_Friss.
  Save Point 0.8.1, a Portland, Oregon, exhibit, Aug. 13-Sept. 5, 2004, at Disjecta.




D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

*
D
a
y
P
o
e
m
s

Click here!
Won't you help support DayPoems?

A Musical Instrument

1806-1861

WHAT was he doing, the great god Pan,
         Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs 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 limpid water turbidly 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 bleak 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,
Steadily 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.


Back to top

DayPoems Poem No. 639



Comment on DayPoems?

If you are like us, you have strong feelings about poetry, and about each poem you read. Let it all out! Comment on this poem, any poem, DayPoems, other poetry places or the art of poetry at DayPoems Feedback.



Won't you help support DayPoems?


Click here to learn more about how you can keep DayPoems on the Web . . .


Copyright

The DayPoems web site, www.daypoems.net, is copyright 2001-2005 by Timothy K. Bovee. All rights reserved.

The authors of poetry and other material appearing on DayPoems retain full rights to their work. Any requests for publication in other venues must be negotiated separately with the authors. The editor of DayPoems will gladly assist in putting interested parties in contact with the authors.

Google DayPoems


Support DayPoems.

Buy your books here

Latest Chapbooks from Powells!!!

 
Search:
Keywords:
In Association with Amazon.com







Bonsai courtesy of
The Online Bonsai Icon Collection
http://www.hav.com/tobic.html