Explore "Lais When Old" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.