To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the herald cried,
And from the pillared precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that they their simple vows had done.
Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe,
And heard the cadenced drip of spilt-out wine,
And the rose-petals falling from the wreath
As the night breezes wandered through the shrine,
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon
Till through the open roof above the full and brimming moon
Flooded with sheeny waves the marble floor,
When from his nook up leapt the venturous lad. . . .
Included in this volume -- first publihsed in 1881 -- are "Charmides" and numerous other Poems and Sonnets (as they're labelled in the table of contents). There was some controversy over the 1882 fouth edition, which abridged certain controverial parts of the title poem, doing it considerable damage. The eleioins were restored for the 1908 (and later) editions.
