Trainor the Druggist

Only the chemist can tell, and not always the chemist
What will result from compounding
Fluids or solids.
And who can tell
How men and women will interact
On each other, or what children will result?
There were Benjamin Pantier and his wife,
Good in themselves, but evil toward each other:
He oxygen, she hydrogen,
Their son, a devastating fire.
I Trainor, the druggist, a mixer of chemicals,
Killed while making an experiment,
Lived unwedded.

Trainor the Druggist Questions:

1. Explan the analogy.
2. What lesson did he seem to learn?
3. Is there anything ironical in what he reveals?

Trainor the Druggist
Burgess points out that the actual pharmacist-drugstore operator in Lewistown during the Masters family's residence was Nathan Pantier, who was a political ally of Hardin Masters.