She snared the world in nets of subtle wiles:
The proud, the famed, all clamoured at her gate;
Dictators plead, inside her portico;
Wisdom sought madness, in her favouring smiles;
Now was she made the laughing-stock of fate:
One loosed her clinging arms, and bade her go.
LAIS WHEN OLD
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.
EXISTENCE
You are here, and you are wanted,
Though a waif upon life's stair;
Though the sunlit hours are haunted
With the shadowy shapes of care.
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