Classic Poem

I took her and I flattened her
Respectfully, I hope
I pasted her upon a slip
Under the microscope
With six-power-lens — I saw her
Ah, I shall ne'er forget
While hearts can beat and flowers can blow
That hour when first we met.

Ah, with what prayer and fasting
Shall mortal man deserve
To see that glimpse of heaven
Her motor vagus nerve
Gaze not, ye too inflammable
Beneath that harmless hair
The convolutions of her brain
Are perilously fair.

I breathed into that microscope
A vow of melting tone
I swore by men and angels
The thunder and the throne

That ere one brave brown hair were touched
On that triumphant head.
My serum's red corpuscula
Should cheerfully be shed.

Spurn not the Men of Science
They sob beneath your sneers
While with their large thermometers
They test their burning tears.
They cleave the rock and rend the flower
They find — is this their sin —
Nature, the Great King's daughter
All glorious within.