Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE FAUN, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: Within my garden's silence and seclusion Last Line: Thy pagan soul! Subject(s): Beauty; Flowers; Gardens & Gardening; Life; Past | ||||||||
Within my garden's silence and seclusion, In pensive beauty gazing toward the dawn, There stands, mid vines and flowers in profusion, A sculptured Faun. The boughs of stately trees are bending o'er him, The scent of calycanthus fills the air, And on the ivied parapet before him Bloom roses fair. Beside him laughs the lightly-flowing fountain, Beneath him spreads the lake's enchanting hue, And, opposite, a sun-illumined mountain Meets heaven's blue. Across Lake Como's silvered undulation The flush of dawn creeps shyly to his face, And crowns his look of dreamful contemplation With tender grace. And he, like Memnon, thrilled to exultation, As if unable longer to be mute, Has lifted to his lips in adoration His simple flute. Ah! would that I might hear the music stealing From yonder artless reed upon the air, -- The subtle revelation of his feeling, While standing there! Perhaps 'tis for the Past that he is sighing, When Como's shore held many a hallowed shrine, Where such as he were worshipped, -- none denying Their rights divine. That Past is gone; its sylvan shrines have crumbled; From lake and grove the gentle fauns have fled; Its myths are scorned, Olympus has been humbled, And Pan is dead. Yet still he plays, -- the coming day adoring, With brow serene, and gladness in his gaze, All past and future happiness ignoring Just for to-day's! Sweet Faun, whence comes thy power of retaining Through storm and sunshine thine unchanging smile? Forsaken thus, what comfort, still remaining, Makes life worth while? Impart to me the secret of discerning The gold of life, with none of its alloy, That I may also satisfy my yearning For perfect joy! I too would shun those questions, born of sorrow, -- Life's Wherefore, Whence and Whither; I would fill My cup with present bliss, and let to-morrow Bring what it will. O Spirit of the vanished world elysian, Cast over me the spell of thy control, And give me, for to-day's supernal vision, Thy Pagan soul! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FERGUS FALLING by GALWAY KINNELL A TIME PAST by DENISE LEVERTOV LAST THINGS by WILLIAM MEREDITH CHRISTMAS TREE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS THIS MORNING, GOD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A MAY MONODY by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD |
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