From
Leaves of Grass, by
Walt Whitman:
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!