"The Gaming House" from William Hogarth's Rake's Progress‘Malingerer’ by Ted Quarterman The Society January 16, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments . My inconsistent pharmacist, Administer that certain cure That can relax my hardened fist In doses sweet with taste impure. O give me something for the pain, My head thumps fast, my heart beats slow, Or take a glance into my brain, For only then you’ll really know Just how infected is this mind With thoughts of your scarce medicine, But you’ve got patients still in line Waiting, wailing, “Let us in!” So discharge me from your ill care, And I’ll to my own health redeem A vital cordon sanitaire That wakes me from my fever dream. , , Edward “Ted” Quarterman is an aspiring writer from Atlanta, Georgia, and a student attending New York University. NOTE: The Society considers this page, where your poetry resides, to be your residence as well, where you may invite family, friends, and others to visit. Feel free to treat this page as your home and remove anyone here who disrespects you. Simply send an email to mbryant@classicalpoets.org. Put “Remove Comment” in the subject line and list which comments you would like removed. The Society does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or comments and reserves the right to remove any comments to maintain the decorum of this website and the integrity of the Society. Please see our Comments Policy here. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) 6 Responses benjamen grinberg January 16, 2021 so witty Reply Julian D. Woodruff January 16, 2021 “”… fever[ed dream]?–or am I missing some point? Reply Jeff Eardley January 16, 2021 Definitely “fevered dream” at the end. Should line 2 be “Administers?” Last verse line 1, could be better with “So please discharge me from your care” Enjoyable poem, thank you. Reply Christopher Flint January 16, 2021 Many folks would likely prefer the adjective “feverish” (the second “e” is elided in the preferred pronunciation). You need “dream” for the rhyme, and I think it makes sense given the preceding context. “Administer” is correct in the imperative. I felt the meter set up the second pronunciation of “discharge”, with the first syllable accented, which is common emphasis in the imperative and allowed the clever use of “ill care” (which the meter and imperative also set up for the reader). I think it could stand as originally written, though some of the expression seems like it would not be familiar to a universal audience. If anything. I would change only “fevered dream” to “feverish dream”. Reply Jeff Eardley January 17, 2021 Ted, Mr.Flint is right about discharge. I was reading it as an Englishman where we usually emphasise the second syllable. Sorry about that. Two nations divided by a common language, you bet. Reply Caroline S. January 18, 2021 Other commenters are right—if you highlight the poem with your cursor, “dream” appears in white at the end (i.e. not visible). Could be an error in publishing? Lovely poem! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Jeff Eardley January 16, 2021 Definitely “fevered dream” at the end. Should line 2 be “Administers?” Last verse line 1, could be better with “So please discharge me from your care” Enjoyable poem, thank you. Reply
Christopher Flint January 16, 2021 Many folks would likely prefer the adjective “feverish” (the second “e” is elided in the preferred pronunciation). You need “dream” for the rhyme, and I think it makes sense given the preceding context. “Administer” is correct in the imperative. I felt the meter set up the second pronunciation of “discharge”, with the first syllable accented, which is common emphasis in the imperative and allowed the clever use of “ill care” (which the meter and imperative also set up for the reader). I think it could stand as originally written, though some of the expression seems like it would not be familiar to a universal audience. If anything. I would change only “fevered dream” to “feverish dream”. Reply
Jeff Eardley January 17, 2021 Ted, Mr.Flint is right about discharge. I was reading it as an Englishman where we usually emphasise the second syllable. Sorry about that. Two nations divided by a common language, you bet. Reply
Caroline S. January 18, 2021 Other commenters are right—if you highlight the poem with your cursor, “dream” appears in white at the end (i.e. not visible). Could be an error in publishing? Lovely poem! Reply