Read "Ballade of Broken Flutes" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(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
The broken flutes of Arcady.
The forest that was all so grand
When pipes and tabors had their sway
Stood leafless now, a ghostly band
Of skeletons in cold array.
A lonely surge of ancient spray
Told of an unforgetful sea, / But iron blows had hushed for aye
The broken flutes of Arcady.
No more by summer breezes fanned, / The place was desolate and gray; / But still my dream was to command
New life into that shrunken clay.
I tried it. And you scan to-day, / With uncommiserating glee, / The songs of one who strove to play
The broken flutes of Arcady.
ENVOY
So, Rock, I join the common fray,
To fight where Mammon may decree; / And leave, to crumble as they may, / The broken flutes of Arcady.