Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922.
By. Justin Huntly McCarthyA Ballad of Dead Ladies
I
Apollo’s music fills the air;
In what green valley Artemis
For young Endymion spreads the snare:
Where Venus lingers debonair:
The Wind has blown them all away—
And Pan lies piping in his lair—
Where are the Gods of Yesterday?
Sleeps in a rose-red tomb; and where
The precious dust of Cæsar is,
Or Cleopatra’s yellow hair:
Where Alexander Do-and-Dare;
The Wind has blown them all away—
And Redbeard of the Iron Chair;
Where are the Dreams of Yesterday?
And Phryne in her beauty bare;
By what strange sea does Tomyris
With Dido and Cassandra share
Divine Proserpina’s despair;
The Wind has blown them all away—
For what poor ghost does Helen care?
Where are the Girls of Yesterday?
The Wind has blown them all away:
The young and yare, the fond and fair:
Where are the Snows of Yesterday?