Bitewings of Song
New York dentist Solyman Brown was apparently pretty passionate about his calling — in 1833 he published “Dentologia, a Poem on the Diseases of the Teeth”:
Ye ask the cause:–by premature decay,
Two of her dental pearls have passed away;
The two essential to those perfect strains,
That charm the soul when heavenly music reigns.
But fly, ye swains, to Seraphina fly,
And bid her fastly flowing tears be dry;
Haste to her cottage, where in vain she seeks
To wipe the burning deluge from her cheeks,
And when ye find her, soothe her frantic mind,
And bid her cast her sorrows to the wind;
In secret whisper, this kind truth impart–
There is a remedy:–the dental art
Can every varying tone with ease restore,
And give thee sweeter music than before!
“Full well I know ’tis difficult to chime / The laws of science with the rules of rhyme,” he wrote in the first canto. “Plain, vulgar prose my subject seems to claim / Did not ambition prompt the higher aim.”
