A Musical Instrument
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
flowed
the
river;
And
hacked
and
hewed
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
notched
the
poor
dry
empty
thing
In
holes,
as
he
sat
by
the
river.
"This
is
the
way,"
laughed
the
great
god
Pan
(Laughed
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
in
the
river.
