(Written at St. Helen's Hospital before an operation)
I saw you rise, proud tower, slow, sure and strong,
And chaos change to ordered symmetry.
Calmly you grew, through rush of hurrying throng,
In arrogance of faultless masonry.
And as I watched you rise, I felt aghast,
My house of life as surely overthrown … … …
Strange that the thing man made could so outlast
This Heaven-lit masonry of flesh and bone!
Emily Bulcock (1945)