Analysis of The Song Of Pan

Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)



Mad with love and laden
With immortal pain,
Pan pursued a maiden--
Pan, the god--in vain.

For when Pan had nearly
Touched her, wild to plead,
She was gone--and clearly
In her place a reed!

Long the god, unwitting,
Through the valley strayed;
Then at last, submitting,
Cut the reed, and made,

Deftly fashioned, seven
Pipes, and poured his pain
Unto earth and heaven
In a piercing strain.

So with god and poet;
Beauty lures them on,
Flies, and ere they know it
Like a wraith is gone.

Then they seek to borrow
Pleasure still from wrong,
And with smiling sorrow
Turn it to a song.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF ABAB XXXX GHGH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 111010 10101 101010 10101 111110 10111 111010 00101 101010 10101 111010 10101 101010 10111 101010 00101 111010 10111 101111 10111 11111 10111 011010 11101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 561
Words 108
Sentences 6
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 74
Words per stanza (avg) 18
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
93

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. more…

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