Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN HOSPITAL: 5. OPERATION, by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN HOSPITAL: 5. OPERATION, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: You are carried in a basket
Last Line: On a hushed, attentive audience.
Alternate Author Name(s): Henley, W. E.
Subject(s): Hospitals; Surgery


You are carried in a basket,
Like a carcase from the shambles,
To the theatre, a cockpit
Where they stretch you on a table.

Then they bid you close your eyelids,
And they mask you with a napkin,
And the anesthetic reaches
Hot and subtle through your being.

And you gasp and reel and shudder
In a rushing, swaying rapture,
While the voices at your elbow
Fade -- receding -- fainter-- farther.

Lights about you shower and tumble,
And your blood seems crystallising --
Edged and vibrant, yet within you
Racked and hurried back and forward.

Then the lights grow fast and furious,
And you hear a noise of waters,
And you wrestle, blind and dizzy,
In an agony of effort,

Till a sudden lull accepts you,
And you sound an utter darkness . . .
And awaken . . . with a struggle . . .
On a hushed, attentive audience.





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