Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOOTHACHE, by W. [PSEUD.]


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOOTHACHE, by                    
First Line: To have it out or not? That is the question
Last Line: "with this regard his footsteps turns away, / scared at the name of dentist"
Alternate Author Name(s): W.
Subject(s): "dramatists;poetry & Poets;shakespeare, William (1564-1616);teeth;" Toothaches


To have it out or not? that is the question —
Whether 'tis better for the jaws to suffer
The pangs and torments of an aching tooth,
Or to take steel against a host of troubles,
And, by extracting, end them? To pull — to tug! —
No more: and by a tug to say we end
The tooth-ache, and a thousand natural ills
The jaw is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To pull — to tug! —
To tug — perchance to break! Ay, there's the rub,
For in that wrench what agonies may come,
When we have half-dislodged the stubborn foe,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes an aching tooth of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and stings of pain,
The old wife's nostrum, dentist's contumely;
The pangs of hope deferred, kind sleep's delay;
The insolence of pity, and the spurns,
That patient sickness of the healthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
For one poor shilling? Who would fardels bear,
To groan and sink beneath a load of pain? —
But that the dread of something lodged within
The linen-twisted forceps, from whose pangs
No jaw at ease returns, puzzles the will,
And makes it rather bear the ills it has
Than fly to others that it knows not of.
Thus dentists do make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of fear;
And many a one, whose courage seeks the door,
With this regard his footsteps turns away,
Scared at the name of dentist.





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