We Sicken to Shun Sickness²
The Spirit can Sustain Infirmity –
But a Wounded Spirit, who can bear?³
Behold him who Infecteth all the World⁴
There’s no Difference between men – in
Intelligence or Race – so Profound as the
Difference between the Sick and the Well⁵
Only the Sufferer knows what the Sickness is⁶
Sicknesse – Death’s Herald and Champion⁷
I that in Heill was and Gladnèss, am trublit
Now with great Sickness and Feblit with
Infirmitie – Timor Mortis Conturbat Me⁸
Time Destroys what Sickness Spares⁹
All Bodies Become Sicker Bodies¹⁰
¹ John Milton, Paradise Lost
² William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVIII
³ Proverbs 18:14 (King James)
⁴ Dante Alighieri tr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Inferno
⁵ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
⁶ Jean Stafford, A Country Love Story
⁷ John Donne, Holy Sonnet IV
⁸ William Dunbar, Lament for the Makers
⁹ William Broome, The Rosebud
¹⁰ Kaveh Akbar, Forfeiting My Mystique