ANAESTHESIA

I caught the smell of ether

From the glass-roofed room

Where the hospital stood.

Suddenly all about me

I felt a mist of anguish

And the old, old hour of dread

When Death had shambled by.

Yellow with time it is,

This letter on which I look;

But up from it comes a perfume

That stabs me still to the heart;

And suddenly, at the odour,

Through a ghost-like mist I know

Rapture and love and wild regret

When Life, and You, went by.