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Walt Whitman - The City Dead-House
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BY the City Dead-House, by the gate,
As idly sauntering, wending my way from the clangor,
I curious pause—for lo! an outcast form, a poor dead prostitute
         brought;
Her corpse they deposit unclaim`d—it lies on the damp brick
         pavement;
The divine woman, her body—I see the Body—I look on it alone,
That house once full of passion and beauty—all else I notice not;
Nor stillness so cold, nor running water from faucet, nor odors
         morbific impress me;
But the house alone—that wondrous house—that delicate fair house—
         that ruin!
That immortal house, more than all the rows of dwellings ever built!
Or white-domed Capitol itself, with majestic figure surmounted—or
         all the old high-spired cathedrals;                          


That little house alone, more than them all—poor, desperate house!
Fair, fearful wreck! tenement of a Soul! itself a Soul!
Unclaim`d, avoided house! take one breath from my tremulous lips;
Take one tear, dropt aside as I go, for thought of you,
Dead house of love! house of madness and sin, crumbled! crush`d!
House of life—erewhile talking and laughing—but ah, poor house!
         dead, even then;
Months, years, an echoing, garnish`d house—but dead, dead, dead.
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