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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CONVALESCENCE, by WALT MASON Poet's Biography
First Line: When one's been lying sick in bed, with
Last Line: I am saying yet, that health's the one and only bet.
Subject(s): Convalescence
First Line: When one's been lying sick in bed, with
Last Line: I am saying yet, that health's the one and only bet.
Subject(s): Convalescence
WHEN one's been lying sick in bed, with plaster casts upon his head, and
poultices upon his feet, recovery seems, oh, so sweet! The doctors, round my
couch of straw, have plied the squirtgun and the saw; for weary days, that
endless seemed, I tied myself in knots and screamed, for every ache that has a
name held wassail in my stricken frame, and many aches not classified whizzed
through my sinews and my hide. At last I fell into a sleep, an old-time slumber,
rich and deep, and when I woke my form was free from every brand of agony. 'Tis
at a crucial time like this, when full of convalescent bliss, a fellow feels how
great is health—far greater than the whole world's wealth. And he can
clearly realize how dippy, batty and unwise, it is to sacrifice that boon, to
gain another picayune. A million men, you may observe, are straining every bone
and nerve, year after year, to add one more gun-metal dollar to their store.
Some day they'll be where I have been, with poultices from feet to chin, and
when they lie in solitude, and o'er their years of folly brood, they'll say, as
I am saying yet, that health's the one and only bet.
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AMONG THE NARCISSI by SYLVIA PLATH
A LEG IN A PLASTER CAST by MURIEL RUKEYSER
CONVALESCENT by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER
PRAYER FOR SHUT-INS by RUTH WINANT WHEELER
AMONG THE NARCISSI by SYLVIA PLATH