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[amibroker] Pan in Wall Street - Somewhat Off Topic



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Pan in Wall Street 

JUST where the Treasury's marble front 
Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations; 
Where Jews and Gentiles most are wont 
To throng for trade and last quotations; 
Where, hour by hour, the rates of gold 
Outrival, in the ears of people, 
The quarter-chimes, serenely tolled 
>From Trinity's undaunted steeple,-- 

Even there I heard a strange, wild strain 
Sound high above the modern clamor, 
Above the cries of greed and gain, 
The curbstone war, the auction's hammer; 
And swift, on Music's misty ways, 
It led, from all this strife for millions, 
To ancient, sweet-do-nothing days 
Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians. 

And as it stilled the multitude, 
And yet more joyous rose, and shriller, 
I saw the minstrel, where he stood 
At ease, against a Doric pillar: 
One hand a droning organ played, 
The other held a Pan's-pipe (fashioned 
Like those of old) to lips that made 
The reeds give out that strain impassioned. 

'T was Pan himself had wandered here 
A-strolling through this sordid city, 
And piping to the civic ear 
The prelude of some pastoral ditty! 
The demigod had crossed the seas,-- 
>From haunts of shepherd, nymph, and satyr, 
And Syracusan times,--to these 
Far shores and twenty centuries later. 

A ragged cap was on his head; 
But--hidden thus--there was no doubting 
That, all with crispy locks o'erspread, 
His gnarled horns were somewhere sprouting; 
His club-feet, cased in rusty shoes, 
Were crossed, as on some frieze you see them, 
And trousers, patched of divers hues, 
Concealed his crooked shanks beneath them. 

He filled the quivering reeds with sound, 
And o'er his mouth their changes shifted, 
And with his goat's-eyes looked around 
Where'er the passing current drifted; 
And soon, as on Trinacrian hills 
&nbps;The nymphs and herdsmen ran to hear him, 
Even now the tradesmen from their tills, 
With clerks and porters, crowded near him. 

The bulls and bears together drew 
>From Jauncey Court and New Street Alley, 
As erst, if pastorals be true, 
Came beasts from every wooded valley; 
The random passers stayed to list,-- 
A boxer Aegon, rough and merry, 
A Broadway Daphnis, on his tryst 
With Nais at the Brooklyn Ferry. 

A one-eyed Cyclops halted long 
In tattered cloak of army pattern, 
And Galatea joined the throng,-- 
A blowsy, apple-vending slattern; 
While old Silenus staggered out 
>From some new-fangled lunch-house handy, 
And bade the piper, with a shout, 
To strike up "Yankee Doodle Dandy!" 

A newsboy and a peanut-girl 
Like little Fauns began to caper: 
His hair was all in tangled curl, 
Her tawny legs were bare and taper; 
And still the gathering larger grew, 
And gave its pence and crowded nigher, 
While aye the shepherd-minstrel blew 
His pipe, and struck the gamut higher. 

O heart of Nature, beating still 
With throbs her vernal passion taught her,-- 
Even here, as on the vine-clad hill, 
Or by the Arethusan water! 
New forms may fold the speech, new lands 
Arise within these ocean-portals, 
But Music waves eternal wands,-- 
Enchantress of the souls of mortals! 

So thought I,--but among us trod 
A man in blue, with legal baton, 
And scoffed the vagrant demigod, 
And pushed him from the step I sat on. 
Doubting I mused upon the cry, 
"Great Pan is dead!"--and all the people 
Went on their ways:--and clear and high 
The quarter sounded from the steeple. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman

My great love of poetry insists I post this. 
Regds Gerard

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