Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN AN ANATOMY LABORATORY by BEULA CHAMBERLAIN

First Line: OVER OUR BENCH IN THE DISSECTING-ROOM
Last Line: "ALIVE OR DEAD."
Subject(s): BEAUTY; CORPSES; DEATH; SCIENCE; CADAVERS; DEAD, THE; SCIENTISTS;

1.
Over our bench in the dissecting-room
We turned all creeds of living inside out:
The mystic Karma eastern seers assume,
The western cool defiances of doubt.
I chose the one, and quoted from a book,
You chose the other, equally absurd;
And there between us, with a cryptic look,
The dead girl lay, and never said a word.

2.
"Beauty's only skin-deep,"
He said to me.
He took a knife and proved it
Anatomically.
"Better buy a lip-stick
Bright and red;
Beauty's only skin-deep,
Alive or dead."



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