At first glance, the poem “in Just-” by e. e. cummings seems like a nice little poem about springtime and childhood and jumping in mud puddles, but the reference to the “goat-footed” balloon man gives the piece a potentially sinister turn. The image of “goat-footed” alludes to the satyr of Greek mythology or to the Greek god Pan.

In Greek mythology, satyrs are half-man-half-animal fertility spirits, attendants of Dionysus, the god of wine, who spend much of their time drinking, partying, dancing, and engaging in sexual activity. They are wild, lustful, and often destructive, and they can hypnotize unwary listeners with their music, forcing them to join in the debauchery. These are not creatures to whom children should be anywhere near, and the poet’s use of “goat-footed,” especially if it refers to a satyr, ought to make readers question the balloon man’s intentions and wonder why he is whistling for the children to come to him and what he is going to do to them.

If the allusion refers to the Greek god Pan, the situation is no better. When the half-man-half-goat Pan plays his flute, he makes people crazy and causes them to panic. Like the satyrs, Pan is a lusty fellow, well known as a fertility god who carries on numerous trysts with a variety of nymphs. Again, Pan is not someone to be trusted around children.

Indeed, that one term, “goat-footed,” turns this simple, sweet spring poem into a potential dark nightmare and makes us want to snatch those children away from the balloon man.