Brilliant and talented, if not always dedicated, Wilde published his first work in verse, "Chorus of Cloud-Maidens," in the Dublin University Magazine in November 1875. A loose translation of songs from Aristophanes' The Clouds, the work indicates Wilde's interest in the classics. In 1878, he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry from Oxford for "Ravenna," a poem in which he recalls his visit to the Italian city of Ravenna the previous year and speculates on its fall from greatness, a popular theme with Wilde and one that he would tragically follow in his own life.
Wilde became devoted to Aestheticism during these Oxford years (see "Oscar Wilde's Aesthetics" in Critical Essays at the end of this book for more information on the Aesthetic movement). He was able to laugh at the movement's superficial excesses as well as his own. Although he was temporarily expelled from Oxford in 1877 for a long absence without permission, he earned a rare "double first" in Literae Humaniores. In November of 1878, he was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree.
By the end of 1881, Wilde's reputation as a poet and art critic, and especially as an advocate of Aestheticism, allowed him to set off for a year-long lecture tour of America. The tour was a highlight of his career; before reaching his twenty-eighth birthday, he had become an international celebrity. In his personal life, Wilde married Constance Mary Lloyd on May 29, 1884, when he was twenty-nine years old.
