Everyone is pleased that the scalpel is operating so smoothly in the surgery, but no one notices that the patient is taking his last breath.

In this sharp couplet, the poet uses the metaphor of an operation to comment on how blind enthusiasm for reform can be utterly devastating. Spectators cheer at the bold, sweeping actions—the scalpel slicing cleanly through the problem—fascinated by the display of decisive action. Yet, in their obsession with the spectacle of the cure, no one notices that the poor patient undergoing it is quietly taking their last breath.