The greater masters of the commonplace, <br />REMBRANDT and good SIR WALTER-only these <br />Could paint her all to you: experienced ease <br />And antique liveliness and ponderous grace; <br />The sweet old roses of her sunken face; <br />The depth and malice of her sly, grey eyes; <br />The broad Scots tongue that flatters, scolds, defies; <br />The thick Scots wit that fells you like a mace. <br />These thirty years has she been nursing here, <br />Some of them under SYME , her hero still. <br />Much is she worth, and even more is made of her. <br />Patients and students hold her very dear. <br />The doctors love her, tease her, use her skill. <br />They say 'The Chief' himself is half-afraid of her.<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/staff-nurse-old-style/
