Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A GLIMPSE OF PAN, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A GLIMPSE OF PAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I caught but a glimpse of him
Last Line: In eddies of odorous air.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Pan (mythology); Rivers; Summer


I CAUGHT but a glimpse of him. Summer was here,
And I strayed from the town and its dust and heat,
And walked in a wood, while the noon was near,
Where the shadows were cool, and the atmosphere
Was misty with fragrances stirred by my feet
From surges of blossoms that billowed sheer
Of the grasses, green and sweet.

And I peered through a vista of leaning trees,
Tressed with long tangles of vines that swept
To the face of a river, that answered these
With vines in the wave like the vines in the breeze,
Till the yearning lips of the ripples crept
And kissed them, with quavering ecstasies,
And wistfully laughed and wept.

And there, like a dream in a swoon, I swear
I saw Pan lying, -- his limbs in the dew
And the shade, and his face in the dazzle and glare
Of the glad sunshine; while everywhere,
Over, across, and around him blew
Filmy dragon-flies hither and there,
And little white butterflies, two and two,
In eddies of odorous air.





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