Surgeons Must Be Very Careful

By Emily Dickinson (Page 240 of Text)

Surgeons must be very careful

When they take the knife!

Underneath their fine incisions

Stirs the culprit,--Life!

The Germ

By Ogden Nash (page 241 of Text)

A mighty creature is the germ,

Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place

Is deep within the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases

By giving people strange diseases.

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?

You probably contain a germ.

Poems to Memorize

The Microsope

By Maxine Kumin (Page 224 of Text)

Anton Leeuwenhoek was Dutch

He sold pincushions, cloth, and such.

The waiting townsfolk fumed and fussed

As Anton’s dry goods gathered dust.

He worked, instead of tending store,

At grinding special lenses for

A microscope. Some of the things

He looked at were:

            Mosquitoes’ wings,

The hairs of sheep, the legs of lice,

The skin of people, dogs, and mice

Ox eyes, spiders’ spinning gear,

Fishes’ scales, a little smear

Of his own blood,

            And best of all,

The unknown, busy, very small

Bugs that swim and bump and hop

Inside a simple water drop.

Impossible! Most Dutchmen said.

This Anton’s crazy in the head.

We ought to ship him off to Spain.

He says he’s seen a housefly’s brain.

He says the water that we drink

Is full of bugs. He’s mad, we think!

They call him Dummkopf, which means dope.

That’s how we got the microscope