Explore "The Modern Venus" by O. Henry on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The golden apple Paris gave / To the most beautiful, / To the fairest Aphrodite fell, / Although she had no pull.
She did not need to plead her cause, / Nor canvass, sue or beg; / She did not run her rivals down, / Nor pull her best friend's leg.
She stood in beauteous youthfulness, / Incarnate rose of love; / When Paris held the apple forth / She did not scrouge or shove.
Alas! our modern Venuses / Far different methods use / To gain the palm of loveliness / Whenever one we choose.
Towns, churches and societies / Now offer prizes rare / To one among the pretty girls / Who is adjudged most fair.
Our modern Venus hustles forth / And campaigns all the town, / And begs men to buy votes for her; / Smith, Johnson, Jones and Brown.
'Twas not thus Venus Victrix gained / The gift of Priam's son. / By beauty, not by begging, was / The golden apple won.
(_Houston Daily Post_, Sunday morning, May 3, 1896.)