Pan
O what are heroes, prophets, men,But pipes through which the breath of Pan doth blowA momentary music. Being's tideSwells hitherward, and myriads of formsLive, robed with beauty, painted by the sun;Their dust, pervaded by the nerves of God,Throbs with an overmastering energyKnowing and doing. Ebbs the tide, they lieWhite hollow shells upon the desert shore,But not the less the eternal wave rolls onTo animate new millions, and exhaleRaces and planets, its enchanted foam.
Words in this poem
- hitherward adv.
- Toward this place; hither. [AS. hiderweard.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pan is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Pan, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/pan.html, id L07558.
Form and metre
Pan is 12 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 58% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O what are heroes, prophets, men, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But pipes through which the breath of Pan doth blow | 10 | ·········· |
| A momentary music. Being's tide | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Swells hitherward, and myriads of forms | 9 | ·/˘˘·/˘·· |
| Live, robed with beauty, painted by the sun; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Their dust, pervaded by the nerves of God, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Throbs with an overmastering energy | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Knowing and doing. Ebbs the tide, they lie | 8 | /·/····· |
| White hollow shells upon the desert shore, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But not the less the eternal wave rolls on | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| To animate new millions, and exhale | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Races and planets, its enchanted foam. | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.