Between the past and the succeeding night;

They strip, then, smoothed with suppling oil, essay

To pitch the rounded quoit, their wonted play:

A well-pois’d disk first hasty Phœbus threw;

It cleft the air, and whistled as it flew;

It reach’d the mark, a most surprising length,

Which spoke an equal share of art and strength.

Scarce was it fall’n, when with too eager hand

Young Hyacinth ran to snatch it from the sand;

But the curst orb, which met a stony soil,