Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

250 SHELLEY AS A LYRIC POET. [vill.
with modern thought and spirit. And perhaps this is
the only way to make Greek subjects real and inter-
esting to us. If we want the very Greek spirit we
had better go to the originals, not to any reproductions.
It is thus he makes Pan sing —
'From the forests and highlands
We come, we come ;
From the river-girt islands,
Where loud waves are dumb,
Listening to my sweet pipings.
Liquid Peneus was flowing.
And all dark Tempe lay
In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
The light of the dying day.
Speeded with my sweet pipings.
The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns,
And the nymphs of the woods and waves,
To the edge of the moist river-lawns,
And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did then attend or follow.
Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,
With envy of my sweet pipings.
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 changed my pipings —
Singing how down the vale of Menalus
I pursued a maiden and clasped a weed :
Gods and men, we are all deluded thus !
It breaks in our bosom, and then we bleed :