Analysis of Hymn Of Pan

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



FROM the forests and highlands
                We come, we come;
            From the river-girt islands,
                Where loud waves are dumb
    Listening to my sweet pipings.
        The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
            The bees on the bells of thyme,
        The birds on the myrtle-bushes,
            The cicale above in the lime,
        And the lizards below in the grass,
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was,
    Listening to my sweet pipings.

Liquid Peneus was flowing,
        And all dark Temple lay
    In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
        The light of the dying day,
    Speeded by my sweet pipings.
        The Sileni and Sylvans and fauns,
            And the Nymphs of the woods and wave
        To the edge of the moist river-lawns,
            And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did then attend and 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 dedal 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 Maenalus
    I pursued a maiden, and clasped 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.


Scheme ababAcdcdxxA efefaaxxxgga xhxhaaixixxa
Poetic Form
Metre 1010010 1111 1010110 11111 1001111 010010010 0110111 01101010 0101001 001001001 0110110111 1001111 101110 011101 01110 0110101 101111 010101 00110101 101101101 00110101 0111101010 01011111010 1101111 1110101 111011 011000101 010101 011111 10110111 1010100101 1011110101 11010100111 111111111 11011111011 10101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,388
Words 233
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 12, 12
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 308
Words per stanza (avg) 76
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:10 min read
188

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

All Percy Bysshe Shelley poems | Percy Bysshe Shelley Books

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