Poems about Doctors and Patients

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Dannie Abse, “Case History”

Through the use antonomasia, the audience is in a position to find out what the first character is like within the poem. Through the use of antonomasia, the author of the poem uses words such as dispensary to refer to some of the drugs that are harmful to the patients.

The list does have an implication in that it does clarify on issues about doctor-patient relationship and on how some doctors treat their patients.

The revision of the last two lines of the fourth stanza affects the theme of the poem in that they do help to stress the point portrayed in the four stanzas. This ensures that the readers do grasp the content and the intended meaning of the poem.

As per one’s perception, the last stanza dopes not contradict the previous meaning of the fourth stanza of the poem. Instead, the last stanza does conclude what is in the fourth stanza hence clarifying all the points to the reader.

Mary Oliver, “University Hospital, Boston”

When referring to the ‘you’, the speaker of the poem refers to the patient to whom she was visiting. This is because she said that the hospital lawn is being taken care just as a patient the patient is.

The first stanza does compare the lawn and the hospital rooms. When the speaker compares these two parts, she does show how the hospital is clean and well maintained hence the same does apply to the patients present in the hospital.

In the third stanza, the speaker draws back to the red and hideous battlefields where many young men were brought to that hospital when suffering from different injuries. This image shows that the hospital has treated many people suffering from different injuries and illnesses. This makes the staff and the doctors in the hospital to be experienced in what they do.

In the final stanza, the speaker of the poem describes a scene where a patient has passed away. This is because the speaker says that she turned and stepped inside an empty room while the previous day there was someone there. The machines are silent, and the bed is all made new. This shows that the patient who was there has passed away.

The poem is about the hospital and the patients who attend the hospital. The poem does describe how the hospital is maintained. The poem does also describe the different patients in the hospital. The poem does give a description of how the hospital treats its patients. Therefore, the theme of this poem is how patients are treated in the hospitals in comparison to how the environment of the hospital is.

Raymond Carver, “What the Doctor Said”

The doctor did not say those words since they are the imaginations of the speaker. As per one’s understanding, the statements that follow after line 7 are what the speaker believes is praying.

The words after line seven portray that the speaker has a different understanding of religion. The speaker has an understanding that the religion is all about kneeling down in forest groves and asking for help. This shows that the speaker has a specific perspective of religion.

When the speaker responds to the question of whether he is a religious person with the statement of not yet but I intend to start today this shows that the speaker before he visited the doctor he was not a religious man. This shows that the speaker intends to start to be religious after the visit to the doctor.

When the doctor says that he is sorry, he refers to the previous diagnosis which he had made to the speaker. The doctor is sorry because he had no other better news to say to the speaker.

When the speaker responds to the final statement of the doctor with ‘Amen’, this shows that the speaker has started to believe in religion as a result of the diagnosis that the doctor.

As per one’s understanding, the doctor offered the speaker another chance to be religious and to believe in God that was one thing that no one has ever given the speaker.

The lack of punctuation in the poem makes the poem hard to read since there are no pauses for catching breath while reading the poem. This makes it hard to fluently read the poem.

Rafael Campo, “El Curandero”

The poem is all about a physician who has empathy towards his patients, and this empathy causes his pain. He is mainly sensitive to female victims. Additionally, the speaker of the poem is at home in two worlds: his ancient Caribbean culture which withstands him and his world of the hospital where he from time to time feels helpless to cure.

Two scenes of healing in this poem are where the speaker does heal two women where one of them was an abused wife while the other a little girl, and this pained the speaker. The other scene of healing is where the speaker gets healed for the pain he is undergoing by St. Rafael who listens to him and touches him to heal him.

The said heals the healer by simply touching him and carrying him to bed where he takes away the pain the healer is suffering from.

The four poems namely; “El Curandero”, “What the Doctor Said”, “University Hospital, Boston”, and “Case History” reveal some of the different roles that the doctors play in the society. All in all, the poems display the fact that all doctors should help people. It is their obligation to help people with some of the health-related issues.

References

→, V. (2010). Poetry: “What The Doctor Said” by Raymond Carver. Wandering Rose.Retrieved 17 November 2014, from HYPERLINK “http://rosannefreed.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/poetry-what-the-doctor-said-by-raymond” http://rosannefreed.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/poetry-what-the-doctor-said-by-raymondcarver/.

Joyner, L., Joyner, L., & profile, V. (2010). A Year’s Risings with Mary Oliver: UniversityHospital, Boston – March 4, 2010. Yearsrisingmaryoliver.blogspot.com. Retrieved 17November 2014, from HYPERLINK “http://yearsrisingmaryoliver.blogspot.com/2010/03/university” http://yearsrisingmaryoliver.blogspot.com/2010/03/universityhospital-boston-march-4-2010.html.

Litmed.med.nyu.edu,. (2014). Case History. Retrieved 17 November 2014, from HYPERLINK “http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/poems/case.history.da.html” http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/poems/case.history.da.html.

Uiowapress.org,. (2014). Blood and Bone | University of Iowa Press. Retrieved 17 November2014, from http://www.uiowapress.org/books/pre-2002/belbloand.htm