of the worst women!
Let the priest still play at immortality!
Let death be inaugurated!
Let nothing remain but the ashes of teachers, artists,
    moralists, lawyers, and learn'd and polite persons!
Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee — let the
    mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the sting-ray, and
    the grunting pig-fish — let these, and the like of these, be
    put on a perfect equality with man and woman!
Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the corpses
    of those who have died of the most filthy of diseases!
Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none but
    fools!
Let men among themselves talk and think forever obscenely
    of women! and let women among themselves talk and
    think obscenely of men!
Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public, naked,
    monthly, at the peril of our lives! let our bodies be freely
    handled and examined by whoever chooses!
Let nothing but copies at second hand be permitted to exist
    upon the earth!
Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever henceforth be
    mention'd the name of God!
Let there be no God!

Let there be money, business, imports, exports, custom,
    authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia, smut, ignorance,
    unbelief!
Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the prison-
    keepers be put in prison! let those that were prisoners
    take the keys! (Say! why might they not just as well be
    transposed?)
Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves!
Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are
    forever bawling! let an idiot or insane person appear on
    each of the stands!
Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the American,
    and the Australian, go armed against the murderous
    stealthiness of each other! let them sleep armed! let none
    believe in good will!
Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! let such be scorn'd
    and derided off from the earth!
Let a floating cloud in the sky — let a wave of the sea — let
    growing mint, spinach, onions, tomatoes — let these be
    exhibited as shows, at a great price for admission!
Let all the men of These States stand aside for a few
    smouchers! let the few seize on what they choose! let the rest
    gawk, giggle, starve, obey!
Let shadows be furnish'd with genitals! let substances be
    deprived of their genitals!
Let there be wealthy and immense cities — but still through
    any of them, not a single poet, savior, knower, lover!
Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away!
If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon him!
Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of breeding
    faith!
Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let them
    dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming! seeming!
    seeming!)
Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach only what
    they have been taught!
Let insanity still have charge of sanity!
Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds!
Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!

Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after consumptive and
    genteel persons!
Let the white person again tread the black person under his
    heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after all?)
Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied in
    mirrors! let the things themselves still continue
    unstudied!
Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself!
Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself!
(What real happiness have you had one single hour through
    your whole life?)
Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless years
    of death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?)

1856

APOSTROPH