Hold it up sternly -- see this it sends back, (who is it? is it you?) Outside fair costume, within ashes and filth, No more a flashing eye, no more a sonorous voice or springy step, Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step, A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, venerealee's flesh, Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous, Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination, Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams, Words babble, hearing and touch callous, No brain, no heart left, no magnetism of sex; Such from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence, Such a result so soon -- and from such a beginning! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SUSSEX DRINKING SONG by HILAIRE BELLOC SAVORING THE PAST by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SARAH'S MONSTERS by KAREN SWENSON HELEN OF TROY by SARA TEASDALE GIVE ME THY HEART by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES [MAY 31, 1862] by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN |