The Common Vein

The Heart of the Fair Young Maiden

Ashley Davidoff MD

To enhance your understanding of the positioning of the chambers, we will present a young maiden whose dance may help you.

 “I came upon a fair young maiden while pondering things of position,

And requested of her the dance of her heart

Which in the past had explained it all

With a slow downwardand rightward tilt, with right side down and left side up,

She slid upon the ground

With the point of her toes to the left and forward.

A graceful stance she bore

No sooner did she have this done,

When I did see her make

That beautiful arching upward twist,

With right hip frontward, and the left to the back.

And right was front and up

And left was down and back

She turned her head back toward me in question,

And with a wink of an eye she did ask,

“Was that the dance thou hadst in mind?”

“Of course” I declared, “…and how beautiful it was!” –

 And I forever knew

How the heart of the fair young maiden did stand –

  And in fact how the heart of mankind had stood forever.” (AD)

 The right sided structures lie anteriorly and slightly superiorly, while the left in turn lie posteriorly and inferiorly.  In addition the atria lie posteriorly and slightly superiorly, while the ventricles lie in turn inferiorly and anteriorly.  The maiden ends up with left sided structures down and posterior and right end up anteriorly and superiorly.  her head and chest represent the atria which are supoerior and posterior and her legs represent the ventriclesd which are inferior and anterior.