| THERE is a queen in China, or maybe it’s in Spain, | |
| And birthdays and holidays such praises can be heard | |
| Of her unblemished lineaments, a whiteness with no stain, | |
| That she might be that sprightly girl who was trodden by a bird; | |
| And there’s a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind, | 5 |
| Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay | |
| And smooth out stain and blemish with the elegance of his mind: | |
| I knew a phoenix in my youth so let them have their day. | |
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| The young men every night applaud their Gaby’s laughing eye, | |
| And Ruth St. Denis had more charm although she had poor luck; | 10 |
| From nineteen hundred nine or ten, Pavlova’s had the cry, | |
| And there’s a player in the States who gathers up her cloak | |
| And flings herself out of the room when Juliet would be bride | |
| With all a woman’s passion, a child’s imperious way, | |
| And there are—but no matter if there are scores beside: | 15 |
| I knew a phoenix in my youth so let them have their day. | |
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| There’s Margaret and Marjorie and Dorothy and Nan, | |
| A Daphne and a Mary who live in privacy; | |
| One’s had her fill of lovers, another’s had but one, | |
| Another boasts, ‘I pick and choose and have but two or three.’ | 20 |
| If head and limb have beauty and the instep’s high and light, | |
| They can spread out what sail they please for all I have to say, | |
| Be but the breakers of men’s hearts or engines of delight: | |
| I knew a phoenix in my youth so let them have their day. | |
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| There’ll be that crowd to make men wild through all the centuries, | 25 |
| And maybe there’ll be some young belle walk out to make men wild | |
| Who is my beauty’s equal, though that my heart denies, | |
| But not the exact likeness, the simplicity of a child, | |
| And that proud look as though she had gazed into the burning sun, | |
| And all the shapely body no tittle gone astray, | 30 |
| I mourn for that most lonely thing; and yet God’s will be done, | |
| I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day. | |
