The smooth-worn coin and threadbare classic phrase <br />Of Grecian myths that did beguile my youth, <br />Beguile me not as in the olden days: <br />I think more grief and beauty dwell with truth. <br />Andromeda, in fetters by the sea, <br />Star-pale with anguish till young Perseus came, <br />Less moves me with her suffering than she, <br />The slim girl figure fettered to dark shame, <br />That nightly haunts the park, there, like a shade, <br />Trailing her wretchedness from street to street. <br />See where she passes -- neither wife nor maid; <br />How all mere fiction crumbles at her feet! <br />Here is woe's self, and not the mask of woe: <br />A legend's shadow shall not move you so!<br /><br />Thomas Bailey Aldrich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/andromeda-2/
