“ I list, as thy heart and ascending aorta
Their volumes of valvular harmony pour,
And my soul, from that muscular music has caught a
New life, ‘ mid its dry anatomical lore.
“ Oh! rare is the sound, when thy ventricles throb
In a systolic symphony, measured and slow,
While the auricles answer with rythmical sob
As they murmur a melody wondrously low.
“ Oh! thy cornea, love, has the radiant light
Of the sparkle that laughs in the icicle’s sheen,
And thy crystalline lens, like a diamond bright,
Through the quivering frame of thine iris is seen.
“ And thy retina, spreading its lustre of pearl,
Like a far – away nebula, distantly gleams
From a vault of black cellular mirrors, that hurl
From their hexagon angles the silvery beams.
“ Oh! the flash of those orbs is enslaving me still,
As they roll ’ neath thy palpebræ, dimly translucent,
Obeying, in silence, the magical will
Of the oculo – motor – pathetic – abducent.
“ Oh! sweet is thy voice, as it sighingly swells
From thy daintily quivering chordæ vocales,
Or rings in clear tones from the echoing cells
Of the antrum, the ethmoid, and sinus frontales,
And stately the heave of thy maidenly breast
As the swell of the billow soft rolling to land,
And as soft the vesicular sigh in thy chest
As the sound of the ripple that ebbs o’er the sand.
“ But alas! ‘ tis with many forebodings
I pen Anatomical verses thy beauty to praise,
For I fear that my studies will never again
Bring the solace they gave in happier days.
“ Thou hast stolen the charm from my studio dim,
From dissection I turn with embittering wrath;
Thou hast stepped between me and my skeleton grim,
Oh lady! fair lady! why crossed you my path ? ”
By: James B. Burnet, M.D.
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