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...ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL by JOHN BYROM JOAN OF ARC IN RHEIMS by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS TO LUCASTA, [ON] GOING TO THE WARS by RICHARD LOVELACE AMORETTI: 64 by EDMUND SPENSER THE YOUTH OF MAN by MATTHEW ARNOLD PEACE PICTURES by ELIZABETH I. BARNES FROST by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN |