I hate these phrases: Of power absolute,
Of full authority, Full proper motion.
The divine laws they have trod under foot —
And human too — for private man’s promotion.
“When I, poor Lais, with my crown
Of beauty could laugh Hellas down,
Young lovers crowded at my door,
Where no my lovers come no more.
So, Goddess, you will not refuse
A mirror that has now no use;
For what I was I cannot be,
And what I am I will not see.”
Edwin Arlington Robinson | “Lais to Aphrodite,” after the Greek of Plato