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Lais When Old
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Lais, when old and all her beauty gone,
Lais, the erstwhile courted pleasure queen,
Walked homeless through Corinth.
One mocked her mien -
One tossed her coins; she took them and passed on.
Down by the harbour sloped a terraced lawn,
Where fountains played; she paused to view the scene.
A marble palace stood in bowers of green
'Twas here of old she revelled till the dawn.
Through yonder portico her lovers came -
Hero and statesman, athlete, merchant, sage;
They flung the whole world's treasures at her feet
To buy her favour and exalt her shame.
* * *
She spat upon her dole of coins in rage
And faded like a phantom down the street.
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