66 
THE TALE OF ARCHAIS 
Diamond and pearl, between the pleasant bars 
Of cool green trees that avenued the grove. 
Zeus wandered through their bounds, and dreamt 
of love. 
Weary of women’s old lascivious breed, 
The large luxurious lips of Ganymede, 
He, weary of tainted kiss and feverish lust, 
Esteeming love a desert of dry dust 
Because he found no freshness, no restraint, 
No virgin bosom, lips without a taint 
Of lewd imagining, yet passed not by 
With scorn of curled lip and contempt of eye 
The chaste abandon of the sleeping maid, 
But looked upon her lips, checked course, and 
stayed, 
And noted all the virginal fresh air 
Of Charicles, the maiden head half bare 
To Phoibos’ kiss, half veiled by dimpled arms 
Within whose love it rested, all her charms 
Half-shown, half-hidden, amorous but chaste. 
And so, between the branches interlaced 
And all the purple white-starred undergrowth, 
Zeus crept beside the maid, little loath 
To waken her caresses, and let noon 
Fade into midnight in the amorous swoon