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Two Songs

Song Cycle by Wallace Arthur Sabin (1869 - 1937)

?. Pan  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
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.

[ ... ]

'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.

[ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "A musical instrument"

See other settings of this text.

First published in Cornhill Magazine, July 1860

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 310
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