Paul Bunyan, Op 17, is an operetta in two acts and a prologue composed by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by W. H. Auden, designed for performance by semi-professional groups.

The geese explain that the old trees will have to leave when a Man arrives: Paul Bunyan will be born at the next blue moon.

First ballad interlude The Narrator recounts the birth and growth of Paul, who gained 346 pounds every week, became as tall as the Empire State Building and had a stride of 3.7 miles ("The cold wind blew through the crooked thorn").

[2] Johnny Inkslinger, an impecunious book-keeper, also turns up, but wishes to be independent and refuses offers of soup, beans and recompense before travelling on.

Sam and Ben recruit cats Moppet and Poppet, and the dog Fido, to aid them in their work ("The single creature lives a partial life").

Second ballad interlude The Narrator describes how Paul went wife-hunting, found an appropriately sized partner (Carrie), and married her ("The Spring came and the Summer and Fall").

Scene 2: The camp While Paul is away, there is discontent at the unvarying rations of soup and beans ("Do I look the sort of fellow Whom you might expect to bellow").

The lumberjacks turn on Inkslinger, but are interrupted by the offstage voice of Slim ("In fair days and in foul Round the world and back").

Inkslinger, dispirited, tells Fido the story of his life, which he feels he has wasted ("It was out in the sticks that the fire of my existence began").

Inkslinger tells him that Hel Helson broods too much and keeps bad company, and that some of the men, particularly one called John Shears, are tired of logging and want to take up farming.

Scene 1: A clearing Paul summons the lumberjacks and asks those who would like to be farmers to accompany him to the land of Heart's Desire, where everything is fertile.

Finally, Paul takes his leave ("Now the task that made us friends in a common labour, ends"), and a Litany ("The campfire embers are black and cold") is sung.