| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | Echoes from Theocritus
III. The Flute of Daphnis | | By Edward Cracroft Lefroy (1855–1891) |
| | | I AM the flute of Daphnis. On this wall | |
| He nail’d his tribute to the great god Pan, | |
| What time he grew from boyhood, shapely, tall, | |
| And felt the first deep ardours of a man. | |
| Through adult veins more swift the song-tide ran,— | 5 |
| A vernal stream whose swollen torrents call | |
| For instant ease in utterance. Then began | |
| That course of triumph reverenced by all. | |
| |
| Him the gods loved, and more than other men | |
| Blessed with the flower of beauty, and endow’d | 10 |
| His soul of music with the strength of ten. | |
| Now on a festal day I see the crowd | |
| Look fondly at my resting-place, and when | |
| I think whose lips have press’d me, I am proud. | | | | |
|
|
