Ballade of Broken Flutes
In a dream, the speaker crosses a barren, ruined land where a deathlike stillness surrounds the broken flutes of Arcady. The once-grand forest, alive when pipes and tabors were heard, has become a leafless assembly of skeletal trees, while the sea alone retains a trace of memory. Iron blows have permanently silenced the instruments, and the whole place is desolate and gray. The speaker nevertheless tries to command new life into the shrunken earth and to make music from the broken flutes. Those songs are now viewed with unpitying amusement. Addressing “Rock,” the speaker resolves to enter the common struggle and fight wherever Mammon commands, leaving the broken flutes of Arcady to crumble.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1896 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Ballade, Symbolist Poetry · 233 words
First lines
(To A. T. Schumann)
IN dreams I crossed a barren land, / A land of ruin, far away; / Around me hung on every hand
A deathful stillness of decay; / And silent, as in bleak dismay
That song should thus forsaken be, / On that forgotten ground there lay
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Ballade of Broken Flutes is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1896 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1896 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Ballade, Symbolist Poetry, Elegiac Poetry, Pastoral Poetry
- Length: 233 words
- Structure: 1 section, 19 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Ballade of Broken Flutes by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, intensely expressive poem centered on the speaker's dreamlike vision, personal artistic struggle, and melancholy emotional response.
- Ballade — It follows the traditional ballade form: three eight-line stanzas with a recurring refrain, followed by a four-line envoy.
- Symbolist Poetry — Arcady, broken flutes, the barren landscape, and Mammon function as evocative symbols for the decline of pastoral beauty, artistic ideals, and spiritual culture.
- Elegiac Poetry — Its dominant mood is lamentation for a lost world of music, nature, and idealized pastoral art, represented by the ruined Arcady.
Tags
poetry · ballad · lyric · melancholy · loss · disillusionment · music · silence · memory · regret · failed dreams · mortality