PAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16735, 17 May 1922, Page 11

PAN.

WF.at was he doing, the groat god P m. Down in the ruck 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 by the river. He tore out a Teed, the great god Pan. From the deep cool bed of the river ' rh.e limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies 11-dying lay, And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he bought it out of tile 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 a 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 tiie heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring. Then notched the poor, drv.~ erupt 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!) “ Tiie only way, since gods began T« make- sweet music, they could succeed. ’ Then, droping his mouth to a hole in the reed. He blew in power by the river. Sweet, sweet, sweet, O pant Pierring sweet bv the river! Blinding sweet. O great god Pan! The. sun on the hill forgot to die! And the lilies revived and the dragoaCame back to dream on tho river. Tet half a. beast is the great god Pau To laugh, as he sits by therner, Making a poet, out of a man. The true gods sigh for the cost and pain— I'or the reed that grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river. —Airs Browning.