Classic and Contemporary Poetry
POEMS AGAINST DOCTORS: 3. THEIR IGNORANCE, by HUMBERT WOLFE Poet's Biography First Line: And then besides. It makes me boil Last Line: With thwarted spite send him your bill. Subject(s): Ignorance; Physicians; Dullness; Stupdity; Doctors | ||||||||
AND then besides. It makes me boil the way he snarls "Cod Liver Oil" in a loud tone, or even louder "I think we'll try a soothing powder." Powder be blowed! Do you suppose that any Doctor really knows where powders go when they are taken, why medicine bottles should be shaken -- or what's the matter with your lung by making faces at your tongue! Of course he can't. The truth is that he doesn't know what he is at, but must say something or another to satisfy your anxious mother, who never is content until his medicines make you really ill. The thing to do is to be firm, and tell the creature he's a worm, and, when he breaks into a stammer, smash all the bottles with a hammer, mix pills and powders, and then stir the mess with the thermometer. Next leave your bed, and order crates of almond-paste and chocolates, plum-cake and various kinds of peels, eat them before and after meals. And as for diet, swallow jam on hot buttered toast with pounds of salmon, a lemon-squash with straws to suck its sugar, and water-ice in buckets. And, last of all, when he is ill, with thwarted spite send him your bill. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DOCTOR WHO SITS AT THE BEDSIDE OF A RAT by JOSEPHINE MILES EL CURANDERO (THE HEALER) by RAFAEL CAMPO HER FINAL SHOW by RAFAEL CAMPO SONG FOR MY LOVER: 13. TOWARDS CURING AIDS by RAFAEL CAMPO WHAT THE BODY TOLD by RAFAEL CAMPO MEDICINE 2; FOR JOHN MURRAY by CAROLYN KIZER THE NERVE DOCTORS by THOMAS LUX DOMESDAY BOOK: DR. BURKE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |
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