Saturday, July 19, 2008

"I pursu'd a maiden and clasp'd a reed"















I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal Earth,
And of Heaven, and the giant wars,
And Love, and Death, and Birth—
And then I chang'd my pipings,
Singing how down the vale of Maenalus
I pursu'd a maiden and clasp'd a reed.
Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!
It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed.
All wept, as I think both ye now would,
If envy or age had not frozen your blood,
At the sorrow of my sweet pipings.


From "Hymn of Pan" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Complete text at Poetry Foundation

Pan and Syrinx, Peter Paul Rubens, 1617-1619. Image from Web Gallery of Art.

Myth of Pan and Syrinx

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Daedal"-- a new word for me and a savory one.

BitterGrace said...

It is a great word, isn't it? It's new to me, too--and missing from my Oxford Concise dictionary! I had to look it up online.