Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOSPITAL NURSE, by FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HOSPITAL NURSE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How shall I know when I am dead?'
Last Line: "and for thy love to worship thee."
Subject(s): Hospitals; Medicine; Nurses; Sickness; Surgery; Drugs, Prescription; Illness


"HOW shall I know when I am dead?"
The fever-stricken patient cried:
Whispered the nurse: "I cannot say,
For I have neither lived nor died.

"How can I live and nurse the dead?
How die, and with the living go?
So long I've wrought a single task,
I nothing else can think or know.

"From ward to ward I glide and glide,
And breathe the ether-tainted air;
My heart is dull, mine ears are filled
With sob, and curse, and wildered prayer.

"The surgeon's knife is keen and true,
The doctor's drugs are bitter quite;
And round and round forever swing,
In equal darkness, day and night.

"Ah me! that God should make this world,
If any God in heaven there be;
Can He not feel His creatures' woe?
Is He so blind He cannot see?

"Last night a wounded man they brought,
The mangled flesh they cut away;
He scarcely breathed, hi failing pulse
Ceased, and he died with opening day.

"Long by his lifeless from I stood,
I saw them lift the helpless clay;
The same old duties called me then,—
Some wound to dress, some throat to spray.

"Let say who will that God is good;—
I doubt there is a God at all;
But if there be in heaven or hell,
He cannot hear us when we call.

"I come and go, and do my work,
With kindly though, and kindly deed:
One word alone, 't is only Help,
Makes all the substance of my creed.

"But it is earthly Help, and lo,
It falls not from the heavens above;
It dwells within the human heart,
And all its blessèd name is Love.

"I have been down to hear them pray,
Within the chapel on the street;
All through the service rich and strong,
I seemed to hear the word Defeat.

"A silken robe the preacher wore,
His alb and chasuble were fine;
And in his face there was a look
Of dainty meat, and costly wine.

"He was no bishop, yet he had
The pride and pomp that bishops wear;
Smug satisfaction oiled his throat,
But lifted not my load of care.

"And as left the House of Creed,
A beggar hobbled by the door;
In him I saw the groaning world,
And I could never worship more.

"I have one duty, only one,
To serve with heart, and hand, and brain
The race He loved who meekly bore
A Golgotha of shame and pain.

"Dear Christ, whom earthly priests deride,
And gilded churches mock with prayer,
My human heat looks up to Thee,
And longs Thy blessèd work to share.

"And if there be no God above,
Nor any God on land or sea,
I am content to call Thee Lord,
And for Thy love to worship Thee."





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