It’s time for another Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Tabetha Yeats. Thank you, Tabetha for hosting.
This week I want to touch on something that is close to my heart, and that is the profession of nursing. My mother, Betty Scully, was a nurse who trained in Binghampton City Hospital during World War II while my father was overseas. Though she left nursing to raise children and work in our family’s restaurant, she was always a nurse, ready to cure my frequent bouts of Strep throat (and cause a little dread) with her glass syringe and penicillin. She’d give neighbors their prescribed injections, such as vitamin B12, in our restaurant kitchen where she alway wore white nurses’ shoes. Her nursing skills gave my mother, in my eyes, a certain power.
During this Covid 19 epidemic, I admire and am so grateful for all nurses, especially those on the front lines. Nursing is more technical and of course different than it was for Clara Barton, who nursed soldiers during the Civil War, before ICU’s, drugs and electronic medical records. But nursing’s ultimate mission is unchanged: to heal and comfort the sick.
This poem by Rosemary and Steven Vincent Benet from “A BOOK OF AMERICANS,” a book for young readers, celebrates Clara Barton:
Clara Barton by Rosemary and Steven Vincent Benet Brave Clara Barton Stood beside her door, And watch young soldiers March away to war. "The flags are very fine," she said, "The drums and trumpets thrilling, But what about the wounds When the guns start killing?" Clara Barton went to work To help keep men alive, And never got a moment's rest Till eighteen-sixty-five. She washed and she bandaged, She shooed away the flies, She hurried in nurses, She begged for supplies. Read the rest here
I’m also an admirer of Florence Nightingale, who was an indefatigable bedside nurse, but also a statistician, scientist and fighter for public health. She came from a wealthy family and dismayed her mother with her determination to be a lowly nurse or any career at all. But she would confront any obstacle to become a nurse.
When the British military doctors plunged into the war against the Russians in Crimea in 1850, they didn’t prepare adequately for war injuries. They also never considered the infectious diseases that soldiers, weakened by poor food, poor shelter and bad water, would encounter. From the beginning, military leaders resented bitterly her interfering in the health care of soldiers. Still, she persisted, determined to do her part to help.
Florence Nightingale spent several years with a crew of nurses in Crimea stuffing mattresses, making beef tea, and keeping notes, collecting public health data. Then, she returned to England with her knowledge of sanitation and health and improved the hospitals at home. She made a such a difference that she became the second most popular woman in England after Queen Victoria, so popular that the men who ran the government and were loath to listen to her, had to. She improved not only England’s hospitals but the sewers, too. She was a public health pioneer. Her sister wrote of her, “She is ambitious–very, and would like . . . to regenerate the world.”
Today we sense tension between public health experts and the government. When we hear some of our leaders denying inconvenient facts, one only has to think about the lessons learned from luminaries such as Florence Nightingale. Here’s my brief impromptu tribute to her:
From Crimea to England: Florence Nightingale Dig wells for clean water. Insulate cold huts. Fresh meat, no more gristle, bandage all cuts. Soldiers died of disease, much less from the guns. She collected the data, her life's work begun. A one woman think tank, back home she would start to improve England's health with her numbers and smarts.
Thank you for spotlighting these two nurses and all of the nurses who are the front lines today. They are certainly unsung heroes. I wonder what poems about nursing the sick will come from this time in our history.
Thank you, Janice for a wonderful post. The line from the Vincent’s poem that gets me is, “begged for supplies.” And, than you for your poem on Florence Nightengale. She really was a one woman think tank. Seeing patterns in the mess of war is quite a calling.
Janice: I connected with your post because I’ve been thinking about the siege of Paris which was during the Franco-Prussian war. The Prussians surrounded Paris in the fall of 1870, thinking that a month or two at the most and Paris would capitulate. But the people of Paris held on. They ate all the meat available and then ate horses, dogs, the animals in the zoo. Rats. Songbirds. People did not complain. Finally, in January of 1871, the Prussians decided to shell the city. For 23 nights they shelled before the French gave in. What an amazing story. We are in difficult times, to be sure, but… look at the past. Look at the leaders as you have pointed out. Wow. Thanks for sharing these stories.
Thanks so much for this informative, inspiring post! What would we do without nurses? There are two in our family, and I’m in awe of their selfless dedication.
A dear friend, also a nurse and now deceased, got married in her 70’s at St. Mary’s Catholic Church (Fairfax Station, VA), where Clara Barton tended to wounded soldiers during the Civil War (I think she also made the church her headquarters). This is about 15 minutes from where we live. 🙂
That’s so interesting, Jama! I used to live in Arlington, so not that far.
Thank you for recognizing nurses as unsung heroes, Janice. The poems were beautiful tributes to those who today in NYC and on Long Island are giving their best care fighting a silent killer. It is good to know that there are poems of recognition out there. Be safe in the Syracuse area.
Thank you, Carol, and you stay well too.
Janice, my comment never went through so here it is again. Thank you for recognizing nurses as unsung heroes. Here in NYC and on Long Island so many of us are grateful for their care and devotion to the silent killer. It is good to know that there are poems of recognition out there, including yours. Stay safe in the Syracuse area.
I adore your Florence Nightingale poem, and hooray for nurses in general! They are definitely heroes.
We truly are waging a war, and have so many brave heroes and heroines on the front lines and behind the scenes. Perfect connection to both CB and FN. Many thanks for sharing these two poems, unknown to me. Be well!
A wonderful tribute to nurses from your mother to Florence Nightingale. Nurses have such a thankless job, but we need them desperately.
Your mother had a wonderful smile. My grandmother was also a nurse, and she definitely took it home with her. I was touched by “She shooed away the flies.”
Yay for data collection!
Hooray for the nurses!
Thanks so much for this post . What a great tribute to nurses past and present. I was fascinated by both Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale as a child, and read their biographies over and over again. I still have an image in mind of Florence Nightingale carrying a lantern amongst the wounded men. It must come from a book illustration. My son’s fiancee is an ER nurse and is scheduled to work extensively with Covid 19 patients because she’s young, healthy, not pregnant and not immunocompromised. I worry about her and the physical, mental, and emotional stress on all our health care professionals. I’m so thankful for them! Great post!
Such a great post! Thanks for sharing what you’re thinking about.
Janice,
I revered Clara Barton beginning in 5th grade. I had a librarian who would welcome me to the library with these words, “oh Janet, come see me in a minute, I have a couple of books I think you will enjoy.” After reading a few biographies, I was hooked. Mrs. Niccolini had quite the influence on me. I wanted to become a nurse early on as well as a teacher. Nursing evolved to maybe becoming a doctor. I became a Candy Striper in high school and loved my time volunteering at our small community hospital, the one I was born in. So your entire post has spoken so clearly to me. My heart is broken for all of the medical people who are working so hard and who do not have the equipment and especially the PPE they need. I pray for all of them. I know of your work in hospitals as both a nurse(right?) and a physician. I know this hits close to your and especially about your mom. How wonderful an example she was to caring. And Florence Nightengale. So many owe so much to her strength and devotion. Wonderful post in these harrowing times. We are only human. Yet there is so much science and invention out there, but yet when we work together and care as hard as we can, we can hopefully learn and prepare and be ready for the next time a scourge this awful shows up. Thanks, Janice.
Thank you, Janet! I hope you and your family are doing well. I know it makes it hard to see grandchildren, but this will end.
Both poems are wonderful tributes. My daughter is in her final semester of nursing school. I worry that she’ll have to face something like this at some point, but I also know that her wisdom, skill, selflessness, strength, and compassion will carry her through.
You must be proud of her. I hope that where ever she works she stays safe.
A timely post, Janice. Thank you for the Clara Barton poem. I love your line “a one-woman think tank” about Florence Nightingale.
Thank you for your tribute to the nurses! They are often unsung heroes–but always heroes. I didn’t know that much about Florence Nightingale–I didn’t realize she was “think-tank.” Amazing!