Pansies (Lawrence)/Beware, O My Dear Young Men—

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BEWARE, O MY DEAR YOUNG MEN———
Beware, O my dear young men, of going rotten.   It's so easy to follow suit;people in their thirties, and the older ones, have gotten   bad inside, like fruitthat nobody eats and nobody wants, so it rots, but is not forgotten.
Rotten inside, they are, and seething   with small obscenities;and they whisper it out, and they titter it out, breathing   among soft amenities,a vapour of rottenness out of their mouths, like sewer-stench wreathing.
And it's funny, my dear young men, that you in your twenties   should love the sewer scentof obscenity, and lift your noses where the vent is   and run towards it, benton smelling it all, before your bit of vitality spent is.
For obscenity, after all, my dear young men   is only mental dirt, ​the dirty mind like a urinal again   or a dung squirt;and I thought you wanted life and experience, dear young men!
All this obscenity is just mental, mental, mental,   it's the village-idiot mindplaying with muck; and I thought you young gents experimental   were out to findnew life for yourselves and your women, complimental.
But if obscene village idiots you want to be, then be it.   But don't imagine you'll getsatisfactory experience from it; can't you see it?   the idiot with his chin all wetgoggling obscenities! If that's you and your fate, why then, dree it.

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