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 afloa
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 Pa
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 indee
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 thin
In holes, as he sat by the river
"This is the way," laughed the great god Pa
(Laughed while he sat by the river)
"The only way, since gods bega
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-fl
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 agai
As a reed with the reeds in the river
