Song of the Followers of Pan
Our bursting bugles blow apartThe gates of cities as we go;We bring the music of the heartFrom secret wells in Lillimo’.
We break in music on the morns--Sing of the flower to stirring roots;Apollo’s cry is in the horns,And Hermes’ whisper in the flutes.
We come with laughter to the Earth,And lightly stir the heading wheat:Our God is Poesy and Mirth,And loves the noise of woodland feet.
When dancers beat the air to sound,After the time of yellow sheaves,He stops to watch the merry round,His pleased face looking through the leaves.
Words in this poem
- heading n.
- The act or state of one who, or that which, heads; formation of a head.
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of the Followers of Pan is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, Song of the Followers of Pan, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/song-of-the-followers-of-pan.html, id L24739.
Form and metre
Song of the Followers of Pan is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB apartA · goB · heartA · lillimoB
- 2 ABAB mornsA · rootsB · hornsA · flutesB
- 3 ABAB earthA · wheatB · mirthA · feetB
- 4 ABAB soundA · sheavesB · roundA · leavesB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Our bursting bugles blow apart | 8 | //˘/˘·˘/ |
| The gates of cities as we go; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We bring the music of the heart | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From secret wells in Lillimo’. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We break in music on the morns-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sing of the flower to stirring roots; | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Apollo’s cry is in the horns, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| And Hermes’ whisper in the flutes. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| We come with laughter to the Earth, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And lightly stir the heading wheat: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Our God is Poesy and Mirth, | 8 | /··/˘˘·· |
| And loves the noise of woodland feet. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| When dancers beat the air to sound, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| After the time of yellow sheaves, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He stops to watch the merry round, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His pleased face looking through the leaves. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.