From Virginia to Paris + 

The polecat, sovereign of its native wood, + 

Dashes damnation upon bad and good; + 

The health of all the upas trees impairs + 

By exhalations deadlier than theirs; + 

Poisons the rattlesnake and warts the toad⁠— + 

The creeks go rotten and the rocks corrode! + 

She shakes o’er breathless hill and shrinking dale + 

The horrid aspergillus of her tail! + 

From every saturated hair, till dry, + 

The spargent fragrances divergent fly, + 

Stifle the world and reek along the sky! + 

Removed to alien scenes, amid the strife + 

Of urban odors to ungladden life⁠— + 

Where gas and sewers and dead dogs conspire + 

The flesh to torture and the soul to fire⁠— + 

Where all the “well defined and several stinks” + 

Known to mankind hold revel and high jinks⁠— + 

Humbled in spirit, smitten with a sense + 

Of lost distinction, leveled eminence, + 

Her powers atrophied, her vigor sunk, + 

She lives deodorized, a sweeter skunk. + 