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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!
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Comments
Descriptive reflection of a time, when slavery was awash; i see pain in this poem of reflections of a slave keeper; we peel away in a mirror till the soul of us appears; it can be so many things a mirror.
Truly inspirational as he inspires my poetry..as many of the old poets verve are wells for us to drink from.
Serge Charles Frechette from Canada