A Hand-Mirror

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, vene-realee'svenerealee's flesh,

Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and can-kerouscankerous,

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!