Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PAN PLAYS IN THE RAIN, by DAVID THORNE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PAN PLAYS IN THE RAIN, by                    
First Line: The rain falls calmly
Last Line: And I love the scent of the hills. ...
Subject(s): Hearts; Love; Rain


The rain falls calmly
Upon a cool world,
And taps the leaves
Of the oak trees,
Whose branches encircle the house.

The night-air with its green fragrance
Steps in through the open door,
The door I have left wide open;
But will she come in the rain?

She came on moon-light nights,
When the hills were rimmed with silver,
And the earth was tender and warm.
She came when the moon was like silver,
But will she come in the rain?

Oh, he who has not loved women
Will not know the meaning of rain.
He will not know the meaning of moonlight
Or why the nightingale sings.

The wind from the hills
Brings the rain through the window;
So I sit in the giant chair,
Overflowing with pillows,
And wrap myself in the coverlet,
While the rain wets my cheek with his lips.

The elves play only in moon-light,
When the earth is tender and warm.
But Pan plays his pipes in the rainstorm. ...
Have you never heard Pan in the rain?
When Pan plays his pipes in the rainstorm,
The notes come with the breath of the wind.
They come from out the damp forest,
And pierce the black mantle of night.

The sound of elves in the garden—
The world alive with sweet smells—
She stands with the wind in the doorway,—
"I heard Pan in the rain," she says.

The wind played with her hair on the hilltops,
And blew them this way and that.
She stands with rain on her bosom,

Like the beauty of an unwritten poem.
"I heard Pan play in the rainstorm,"
She tells me; "have you never heard Pan in the rain?"

She sits in the giant chair beside me,
In the Indian coverlet wrapped tight;
And I feel her rain-covered body,
As it soaks its way through my clothes,
And I press her tightly to me,
And kiss her windswept cheek,
And I smell the scent of the hilltops upon it,
And I love the scent of the hills. ...





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