Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hymn of Pan

Tmolus as judge

Mount Tmolus judged the musical contest between Apollo and Pan (Pan lost). Shelley's Pan claims even the mountain-judge went silent for his music—a boast that sets up the rivalry.

I
From the forests and highlands
We come, we come;
From the river-girt islands,
Where loud waves are dumb
Listening to my sweet pipings.
The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
The bees on the bells of thyme,
The birds on the myrtle bushes,
The cicale above in the lime,
And the lizards below in the grass,
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was.

Tmolus as judge

Mount Tmolus judged the musical contest between Apollo and Pan (Pan lost). Shelley's Pan claims even the mountain-judge went silent for his music—a boast that sets up the rivalry.

Listening to my sweet pipings.
II.

Geography of divine audience

Peneus River flows through the Vale of Tempe between Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus—actual Greek locations where gods and nature spirits gathered. Shelley maps the mythological landscape precisely.

Liquid Peneus was flowing,
And all dark Tempe lay

Geography of divine audience

Peneus River flows through the Vale of Tempe between Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus—actual Greek locations where gods and nature spirits gathered. Shelley maps the mythological landscape precisely.

In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
The light of the dying day,
Speeded by my sweet pipings.
The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns,
And the Nymphs of the woods and the waves,
To the edge of the moist river-lawns,
And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did then attend and follow,
Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,
With envy of my sweet pipings.
III.
I sang of the dancing stars,

Daedal = cunning/intricate

From Daedalus, the craftsman. Pan claims to sing of Earth's complex design, positioning himself as cosmic poet, not just a rustic piper.

I sang of the daedal Earth,
And of Heaven—and the giant wars,
And Love, and Death, and Birth,—
And then I changed my pipings,—
Singing how down the vale of Maenalus
I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed.

The Syrinx story

Pan chased the nymph Syrinx; she transformed into reeds to escape him. He cut the reeds and made his first panpipe—his instrument is literally failed desire. The myth explains why Pan's music is sad.

Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!
It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed:
All wept, as I think both ye now would,
If envy or age had not frozen your blood,
At the sorrow of my sweet pipings.

Tmolus as judge

Mount Tmolus judged the musical contest between Apollo and Pan (Pan lost). Shelley's Pan claims even the mountain-judge went silent for his music—a boast that sets up the rivalry.

I
From the forests and highlands
We come, we come;
From the river-girt islands,
Where loud waves are dumb
Listening to my sweet pipings.
The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
The bees on the bells of thyme,
The birds on the myrtle bushes,
The cicale above in the lime,
And the lizards below in the grass,
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was.

Tmolus as judge

Mount Tmolus judged the musical contest between Apollo and Pan (Pan lost). Shelley's Pan claims even the mountain-judge went silent for his music—a boast that sets up the rivalry.

Listening to my sweet pipings.

Geography of divine audience

Peneus River flows through the Vale of Tempe between Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus—actual Greek locations where gods and nature spirits gathered. Shelley maps the mythological landscape precisely.

Liquid Peneus was flowing,
And all dark Tempe lay

Geography of divine audience

Peneus River flows through the Vale of Tempe between Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus—actual Greek locations where gods and nature spirits gathered. Shelley maps the mythological landscape precisely.

In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
The light of the dying day,
Speeded by my sweet pipings.
The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns,
And the Nymphs of the woods and the waves,
To the edge of the moist river-lawns,
And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did then attend and follow,
Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,
With envy of my sweet pipings.
I sang of the dancing stars,

Daedal = cunning/intricate

From Daedalus, the craftsman. Pan claims to sing of Earth's complex design, positioning himself as cosmic poet, not just a rustic piper.

I sang of the daedal Earth,
And of Heaven—and the giant wars,
And Love, and Death, and Birth,—
And then I changed my pipings,—
Singing how down the vale of Maenalus
I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed.

The Syrinx story

Pan chased the nymph Syrinx; she transformed into reeds to escape him. He cut the reeds and made his first panpipe—his instrument is literally failed desire. The myth explains why Pan's music is sad.

Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!
It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed:
All wept, as I think both ye now would,
If envy or age had not frozen your blood,
At the sorrow of my sweet pipings.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Pan Speaks to Apollo

This is Pan's side of the famous musical contest. In Ovid's version, Tmolus judged Apollo the winner and King Midas (who disagreed) got donkey ears for his bad taste. Shelley reverses the verdict: his Pan claims everyone, even Apollo, fell silent with "envy" at his piping.

The poem is a dramatic monologue—Pan addresses Apollo directly in stanza II ("as you now, Apollo") and returns to him in stanza III ("ye now"). Notice Pan's confidence borders on arrogance: he claims all nature went silent for him, that river-speed changed ("Speeded by my sweet pipings"), that even gods and mythological creatures attended him. The refrain "my sweet pipings" appears six times, hammering home his self-regard.

CONTEXT Shelley wrote this for a drama competition with his friend Leigh Hunt in 1820. Each wrote a play about a mythological music contest—Hunt chose Apollo vs. Marsyas, Shelley chose Apollo vs. Pan. The Romantics loved Pan as a symbol of natural, spontaneous art versus Apollo's classical perfection. Shelley typically sided with rebels (Prometheus, Satan), so giving Pan the last word fits his pattern.

The Turn: When Boasting Becomes Grief

Stanza III shifts from triumph to tragedy. Pan starts by listing his grand subjects—"dancing stars," "giant wars," "Love, and Death, and Birth"—cosmic themes matching Apollo's scope. Then comes "And then I changed my pipings": he switches from universe-scale topics to personal failure.

The Syrinx myth is the wound inside Pan's music. He chased a nymph who turned into reeds to escape him; he made his pipes from her transformed body. "It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed" describes both the literal breaking of reeds and the emotional breaking of desire. His instrument is made of rejection.

"Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!" is the poem's insight: everyone mistakes the object of desire for the thing itself, everyone grasps and finds they're holding something else. Pan's "sorrow" becomes universal. He ends by suggesting Apollo and Tmolus can't weep anymore because "envy or age had not frozen your blood"—a final jab that they've lost the capacity for feeling he retains. Pan loses the contest but wins in emotional authenticity, which is exactly the Romantic hierarchy of values.