Which poem inspired Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun?

Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was inspired by the poem "L’Après-midi d’un faune" ("The Afternoon of a Faun") by the French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé.12

In the poem, a faun—a mythological creature that is half-man and half-goat—awakens to reflect on his sensuous memories of forest nymphs. Debussy’s 1894 tone poem serves as a musical evocation of these themes, utilizing a sinuous flute melody and fluid orchestral textures to capture the dreamlike, erotic nature of the faun's experience.13