This line from EBB's A Musical Instrument
"The limpid water turbidly ran"
confuses me. Limpid means clear, turbid is muddy.

Is it merely that Pan stirred up the sediment in the stream when he tore out the reed?

The take I get on it , Linda, is this: The normally clear stream ran muddy because of the turbulence Pan caused.

The violence of Pan's actions are described in the first stanza:

What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,
And breaking the golden lilies afloat
With the dragon-fly on the river.

It was probably the splashing that did it.


Les



Post Edited (04-04-05 12:21)

Thanks, I was hoping it was a straightforward as that.

Doesn't limpid also mean calm or serene?

[www.google.com]

That is, calm but muddy waters.

Could also be a purposeful use of oxymoron (synoeciosis, irony, compressed paradox), but one does not normally see such devices in EBB's stuff.

limpid - (clear waters) are made muddy by Pan - Clarity is lost