Mythology & Folklore
Syrinx
From Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1889)
Pan's Syrinx was a girl indeed,
Though now she's turned into a reed;
From that dear reed Pan's pipe does come,
A pipe that strikes Apollo dumb;
Nor flute, nor lute, nor gittern can
So chant it as the pipe of Pan:
Cross-gartered swains and dairy girls,
With faces smug and round as pearls,
When Pan's shrill pipe begins to play,
With dancing wear out night and day;
The bagpipe's drone his hum lays by,
When Pan sounds up his minstrelsy;
His minstrelsy! O base! this quill,
Which at my mouth with wind I fill,
Puts me in mind, though her I miss,
That still my Syrinx' lips I kiss.
Cite this poem
MLA
Lyly, John. “Syrinx.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lyly/8/.
Chicago
Lyly, John. “Syrinx.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lyly/8/.
Read this poem with the Codex →