A Hand-Mirror
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
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; 10
Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
Such a result so soon--and from such a beginning!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 205 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCCDEFEEEEG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 697 |
Words | 106 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 12 |
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"A Hand-Mirror" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/37936/a-hand-mirror>.
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