Too bad T.S. Eliot wasn't given credit for the words used in the title "Like a Patient Etherized Upon a Table" (Historical Perspectives, June), which are from his great poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." When I make my coffee every morning, I think of another line from this poem: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

To view the poem in its entirety, visit http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html.

Janet Dignam, RN