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