A Hand-Mirror Poem by Walt Whitman

A Hand-Mirror

Rating: 3.0



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!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Joy Vanderhelm 21 January 2006

Oh, the horros that come with age! I, for one, plan on inventing a time-machine that doesn't go back in time, rather just creates a bubble. One that allows me to remain super sexy and relatively healthy until my death bed.

10 12 Reply
Kristen Hall 06 February 2013

This reminds me of The Lumineers' line from Slow it Down: Smile less and dress up some more.

3 7 Reply
Cambridge Keenan 10 July 2013

This is about aging, not so gracefully perhaps

3 5 Reply

The poet asks ourselves to look and understand what we are. good poem.

4 4 Reply
Aftab Alam Khursheed 16 September 2014

It is mandatory to know about our self in the mirror of our mind find find find

2 5 Reply
MAHTAB BANGALEE 25 January 2021

Hand of truth and justice is the hand of life where the peaceful life reflects itself as the true conscience of humane

0 0 Reply
Suryendu Chaudhury 02 October 2020

The ugly facades of living reality is well projected.

0 0 Reply
M Asim Nehal 26 February 2019

Wonderful poem: Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence, Such a result so soon- and from such a beginning!

0 0 Reply
olivia 08 August 2018

wow amazing notttttt: (

2 0 Reply
Subhas Chandra Chakra 20 April 2018

It should be read as magnificent poem, instead of mag magnificpoem.

0 0 Reply
Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

New York / United States
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