• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

The Monk and the Faun [poem by Louis Esson]

8 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Louis Esson was published in Red Gums and Other Verses (1912).]

The Monk and the Faun.

Clear tolled the urgent matin bell.
Fra Angelo, with downward glance,
Thrice crossed himself, and left the cell,
All in the morning’s radiance,
To grub the garden round the well.

* * *

With girdle hempen, sandals thin,
He passed, and tonsured pate entangled
With heavy thought of mortal sin,
A mattock on his arm, where dangled
Down to his knees, a discipline.

* * *

Birds warbled in the trembling air
That blessed the day with lilac breath.
But tho’ God made the world so fair
The joy of earth, the peace of death
Nor beauty moved him unaware.

* * *

There was a garden past the lawn
And deep he delved there, healing toil,
The soul from subtle snares withdrawn,
When lo! beneath the shovelled soil
Laughing, there lurked a marble faun.

A faun his blade had cast aside,
Greek, flawless — by an artist carved —
With wicked eyes and lips stretched wide
Greedy for life, with no soul starved
Or sprightly body mortified.

* * *

The old monk paused, and looked askance,
Recalling half-forgotten sins,
His Pagan youth, the song and dance,
The flutes and feasting, prickt wine-skins,
And Roman revel and romance.

* * *

Once mortals danced with ivy crowned
In that old wicked world where Pan
Piped in the wild-wood, limbs embrowned
Naked, with wind and wave, when man
Knew not of Heaven the gay year round.

* * *

So muttering Aves, to and fro
Perturbed to face Temptation’s tricks,
Pacing the lawn, Fra Angelo
Clasped tight his wooden crucifix,
And from the garden turned to go

* * *

O Miserere domine!
Around the holy well, with dim
And startled eyes he chanced to see
A sly faun dancing, luring him
To love the earth, life, vanity.

* * *

With faltering hands he seized the god
Who kindled in the soul wild fire,
And buried safe beneath the sod
The brown faun, that was the earth’s desire,
And heavy hearted backward trod.

* * *

In an old Latin book is drawn
As headpiece to a curious tale
A cloistered garden, where a faun
Pipes, and to song of nightingale
A grey monk dances on the lawn.

* * *

When dusk descends, day’s duty done,
For God’s sweet gifts of peace and mirth
Now prays the monk, enticed by one
Who loved the earth, the warm wild earth,
And loved the sun, the laughing sun.



Source:
Louis Esson, Red Gums and Other Verses, Melbourne: Fraser & Jenkinson, 1912, pages 20-22

Editor’s notes:
Ave = a reference to Ave Maria: (Latin) “Hail Mary”; “Ave Maria” is a well-known Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary, which begins with the line “Hail Mary, full of grace”; “Ave Maria” is also a famous song by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828), as part of his Opus 52 (1825), which he based upon the well-known epic poem “The Lady of the Lake” (1810) by the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

faun = in Roman mythology, fauns were forest gods or place-spirits, depicted as half-man and half-goat (like the satyrs of Greek mythology)

miserere domine = (Latin) “Lord have mercy”

Pan = in Greek mythology, Pan was the god of shepherds, hunting, and music

pate = the top of the head (the crown of the head); the head (may also refer to the brain)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Louis Esson (1878-1943) (author), poem, Red Gums and Other Verses (Louis Esson 1912), SourceIACLibrary, year1912

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Obituary: Dr. James Edwards [31 December 1879]
  • Mothers’ Day [10 May 1909]
  • Mother’s Day [20 May 1909]
  • Mother’s Day [by Rev. Father J. M. Cusack, 25 May 1944]
  • Mothers’ Day [13 May 1921]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on Duncan (I’d love to have a beer with Duncan) [music videos, sung by Slim Dusty and various artists]
  • IAC on Visit of Hope to Sydney-Cove, Near Botany-Bay [poem by Erasmus Darwin, 1789]
  • Evan on The Last of His Tribe [poem by Henry Kendall]
  • Graeme Jensen on The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Willow on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in