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 deli- cate fair house—that ruin!That immortal house, more than all the rows of dwell- ings ever built!Or white-domed Capitol itself, with majestic figure sur- mounted—or all the old high-spired cathedrals;That little house alone, more than them all—poor, des- perate 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, crum- bled! 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.