| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Fall of a Soul |
| | | John Addington Symonds (1840–93) |
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| I SAT unsphering Plato ere I slept: | |
| Then through my dream the choir of gods was borne, | |
| Swift as the wind and splendid as the morn, | |
| Fronting the night of stars; behind them swept | |
| Tempestuous darkness o’er a drear descent, | 5 |
| Wherein I saw a crowd of charioteers | |
| Urging their giddy steeds with cries and cheers, | |
| To join the choir that aye before them went: | |
| But one there was who fell, with broken car | |
| And horses swooning down the gulf of gloom; | 10 |
| Heavenward his eyes, though prescient of their doom, | |
| Reflected glory like a falling star, | |
| While with wild hair blown back and listless hands | |
| Ruining he sank toward undiscover’d lands. | |
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