Poem by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Andromeda

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!

1. Latakia
2. A Petition
3. At the Funeral of a Minor Poet
4. Enamored Architect of Airy Rhyme
5. At a Reading

Gerard Hopkins Andromeda ("Now Time’s Andromeda on this rock rude")

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