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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THOSE VARIOUS SCALPELS, by MARIANNE MOORE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Those / various sounds consistently indistinct, like intermingled echoes Last Line: Are more highly specialized than the tissues of destiny itself? Subject(s): Surgery | |||
Those various sounds consistently indistinct, like intermingled echoes struck from thin glasses successively at random -- the inflection disguised: your hair, the tails of two fightin-cocks head to head in stone -- like sculptured scimitars re- peating the curve of your ears in reverse order: your eyes flowers of ice and snow sown by tearing winds on the cordage of disable ships: your raised hand an ambiguous signature: your cheeks, those rosettes of blood on the stone floors of French chateaux, with regard to which the guides are so affirmative: your other hand a bundle of lances all alike, partly hid by emeralds from Persia and the fractional magnificence of Florentine goldwork -- a collection of half a dozen little objects made fine with enamel in gray, yellow, and dragon-fly blue, a lemon, a pear and three bunches of grapes, tied with silver: your dress, a magnificent square cathedral tower of uniform and at the same time diverse appearance -- a species of vertical vineyard rustling in the storm of conventional opinion. Are they the weapons or scalpels? Whetted to brilliance by the hard majesty of that sophistication which is su- perior to opportunity, these things are rich instruments with which to experiment but surgery is not tentative. Why dissect destiny with instruments which are more highly specialized than the tissues of destiny itself? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR H. V. (1901-1927) by WELDON KEES OUTSIDE THE OPERATING ROOM OF THE SEX-CHANGE DOCTOR by SHARON OLDS SONG FOR MY LOVER: 11. A MEDICAL STUDENT LEARNS LOVE AND DEA by RAFAEL CAMPO SONG FOR MY LOVER: 13. TOWARDS CURING AIDS by RAFAEL CAMPO AN AMERICAN BEAUTY; FOR ANN LONDON by CAROLYN KIZER SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: PAULINE BARRETT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS I MAY, I MIGHT, I MUST by MARIANNE MOORE |
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