Pan

The speaker addresses Pan, the 'goat-foot God of Arcady', in two linked villanelles. In the first he laments that 'This modern world is grey and old': no shepherd lads play at Pan's fold, no one glimpses his brown limbs among the laurels, and English winds are chill. He lets Pan keep to his Greek woods, asking only what remains of him. In the second he reverses himself and begs Pan to leave Arcady, for 'This modern world hath need of thee'. England, the land of Milton's liberty and Sidney's chivalry, lacks a stronger song, and Pan should trade his oaten pipe for a trumpet.

Key themes

• Pagan beauty and the modern world
• From pipe to trumpet
• England's heroes

Part I is built on two refrains, 'O goat-foot God of Arcady!' and 'And what remains to us of thee?' Between them the speaker lists what has been lost. 'This modern world is grey and old'. No more do shepherd lads in glee 'Throw apples at thy wattled fold', and no one can see through the laurels 'Thy soft brown limbs, thy beard of gold'. 'Dull and dead our Thames would be', he says, 'For here the winds are chill and cold'. So he tells Pan to 'keep the tomb of Helicé, / Thine olive-woods, thy vine-clad wold'. Many an 'unsung elegy / Sleeps in the reeds our rivers hold', and the part ends by asking once more what remains of him.

Part II changes the refrains to 'Ah, leave the hills of Arcady!' and 'This modern world hath need of thee!' Pan should leave his satyrs and 'their wanton play'. England has no nymph or Faun, 'For Faun and nymph are old and grey', but it has a history of its own: it is 'the land where liberty / Lit grave-browed Milton on his way', and 'A land of ancient chivalry / Where gentle Sidney saw the day'.

The appeal gathers force. 'This fierce sea-lion of the sea, / This England lacks some stronger lay'. The poem ends by asking Pan to 'blow some trumpet loud and free, / And give thine oaten pipe away', trading the shepherd's reed for a louder, public music, and closes on both refrains together.

• Pan

  The goat-foot god

  The 'goat-foot God of Arcady', with 'soft brown limbs' and a 'beard of gold', once honoured by shepherd lads who threw apples at his fold. He never answers. The speaker first leaves him to his Greek woods, then begs him to leave Arcady and bring a stronger song to England.

• The speaker

  A voice of modern England

  He speaks for 'this modern world', grey, old and chill, and for England, the land of Milton and Sidney. In Part I he mourns what is lost of Pan; in Part II he changes his mind and calls on the god to come and play a louder, freer music.

Every line is copied from the text and links to where it appears.

• "O goat-foot God of Arcady!"

  The poem

• "This modern world is grey and old"

  The poem

• "This modern world hath need of thee!"

  The poem

The subtitle, 'Double Villanelle', names the form: two villanelles, each of nineteen lines on only two rhymes, in which two refrains alternate at the ends of the stanzas and come together at the close. The second villanelle answers the first, changing its refrains from 'O goat-foot God of Arcady!' and 'And what remains to us of thee?' to 'Ah, leave the hills of Arcady!' and 'This modern world hath need of thee!'

About this edition

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