Pan-Worship, and Other Poems

Chapter 5: THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST

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About This Book

A lyrical collection that weaves mythic and folk imagery with intimate pastoral observation. Poems summon classical and rural pagan presences, celebrate springs, woods, and seasonal renewal, and linger over longing for vanished rites. Voices shift between vagrant singers, dreaming peasant figures, and reflective speakers, moving through short songs, narrative ballads, and contemplative lyrics. Recurring motifs include enchanted gardens, musical reverie, and the healing powers of earth and ritual, with tone ranging from playful gaiety to wistful melancholy and a consistent emphasis on vivid sensory detail and musical phrasing.

THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST

I stood on the verge of the mysterious forest,

Sunlight lay behind me on the meadows,

But all the world of the mysterious forest

Was a world of wraiths and shadows.

The dim trees beckoned, beckoned with their branches,

I said: "The sun's behind me on the meadows."

A dim voice calling, calling through the branches

From the world of wraiths and shadows.

I saw a pale young Queen, her eyes were mournful,

Steal ghostwise ... is the sun yet on the meadows?...

More phantoms passed and all their eyes were mournful

In the world of wraiths and shadows.

I see a blue light in the mysterious forest,

The cold night lies behind me on the meadows.

The branches beckon in the mysterious forest ...

They beckon, beckon, beckon, call and beckon

From the world of wraiths and shadows.