We have cried in our despair That men desert, For some trivial affair Or noisy, insolent sport, Beauty that we have won From bitterest hours; Yet we, had we walked within Those topless towers Where Helen walked with her boy, Had given but as the rest Of the men and women of Troy, A word and a jest. THE ATTACK ON 'THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD,' 1907 Once, when midnight smote the air, Eunuchs ran through Hell and met From thoroughfare to thoroughfare, While that great Juan galloped by; And like these to rail and sweat Staring upon his sinewy thigh. THE THREE BEGGARS _'Though to my feathers in the wet,_ _I have stood here from break of day,_ _I have not found a thing to eat_ _For only rubbish comes my way._ _Am I to live on lebeen-lone?'_ _Muttered the old crane of Gort._ _'For all my pains on lebeen-lone.'_ King Guari walked amid his court The palace-yard and river-side And there to three old beggars said: 'You that have wandered far and wide Can ravel out what's in my head. Do men who least desire get most, Or get the most who most desire?' A beggar said: 'They get the most Whom man or devil cannot tire, And what could make their muscles taut Unless desire had made them so.' But Guari laughed with secret thought, 'If that be true as it seems true, One of you three is a rich man, For he shall have a thousand pounds Who is first asleep, if but he can Sleep before the third noon sounds.' And thereon merry as a bird, With his old thoughts King Guari went From river-side and palace-yard And left them to their argument. 'And if I win,' one beggar said, 'Though I am old I shall persuade A pretty girl to share my bed'; The second: 'I shall learn a trade'; The third: 'I'll hurry to the course Among the other gentlemen, And lay it all upon a horse'; The second: 'I have thought again: A farmer has more dignity.' One to another sighed and cried: The exorbitant dreams of beggary, That idleness had borne to pride, Sang through their teeth from noon to noon; And when the second twilight brought The frenzy of the beggars' moon They closed their blood-shot eyes for naught. One beggar cried: 'You're shamming sleep.' And thereupon their anger grew Till they were whirling in a heap. They'd mauled and bitten the night through Or sat upon their heels to rail, And when old Guari came and stood Before the three to end this tale, They were commingling lice and blood. 'Time's up,' he cried, and all the three With blood-shot eyes upon him stared. 'Time's up,' he cried, and all the three Fell down upon the dust and snored.