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.

from Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1913)
Lais when Young	Existence

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