Page:Poems and lyrics of the joy of earth.djvu/169

Rh And shall they make of Beauty their estate, The fortress and the weapon of their sex? Shall she in her frost-brilliancy dictate, More queenly than of old, how we must woo, Ere she will melt? The halter's on our necks,
 * Kick as it likes us, I and you.

Certain it is, if Beauty has disdained Her ancient conquests, with an aim thus high: If this, if that, if more, the fight is gained. But can she keep her followers without fee? Yet ah! to hear anew those ladies cry,
 * He who's for us, for him are we!