The Walt Whitman Archive
Published Works
Books by Whitman
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 360] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A HAND-MIRROR.
HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it?
Is it you?)
Is it you?)
Outside fair costume—within ashes and filth,
No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice or
springy step;
springy step;
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, vene-
realee's flesh,
realee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and can-
kerous,
kerous,
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,
hence,
Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!