On World Poetry Day, 21st March, I discovered two poets. I knew of them earlier -they are indeed famous- but not as poets.
While the first poet was born at Almora in 1857 in the Kumaon Hills of Northwest Nepal the second one who was born in 2022 at the Silicon Valley of San Francisco.
The first poet though a Brit, was born in a family which had been linked to India for more than three generations. While the second poet is trying to find parents in India.
The first poet studied Medicine in St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and went on to be the first British doctor to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Human Physiology and Medicine in 1902. The second poet has the potential to become the doctor to the whole world and has the capability to win a Medicine Noble in the future.
The discovery made by the first poet has been pivotal in understanding a disease which takes the lives of more than 400000 people across the world each year. And the second poet has recently taken the world by storm and threatens to upend it.
Dr Ronald Ross, our first poet, discovered the transmission of Malaria by the Anopheles Female mosquito while working in the jungles of Secunderabad in the British Medical Service. Ross was a polymath and had many interests. As a young man he wanted to be an artist and was not interested in Medicine. Thus, even as he spent hours studying malarial parasites under the microscope, the artist in him, composed poems. Throughout his active medical career, he also published several plays, short dramas, fables, romances and numerous poems. Some of his poems are published below.
Our second incredible poet, Chatgpt, was discovered by me as I was preparing to write this piece for World Poetry Day. I first googled for ‘Physicians who were famous poets’ – and while the well-known names like John Keats (who left medicine to pursue poetry) and Sir William Osler (one of the founders of Johns Hopkins hospital) popped up, what caught my attention was the name of our first poet Dr Ronald Ross. And then just out of creative curiosity we asked Chatgpt to compose a poem on ‘Ross, Malaria and Poetry’. And lo behold! within seconds the incredible poet Chatgpt, came up with this poem and even gave it a title. It swept me off my feet. Here it is..
*The Blood, Science, and Stanzas: A Tribute to Dr. Ronald Ross*
By Chatgpt
Through jungle’s breath and fevered land,
A doctor walked with steady hand.
With microscope and patient gaze,
He sought the cause in malaria’s maze.
The buzzing wings, a silent thief,
Brought men to beds of pain and grief.
Yet Ross, with science as his guide,
Unveiled the truth they long denied.
A parasite within the blood,
A secret hid in nature’s flood.
Mosquito’s bite—no random curse,
But nature’s script, precise, diverse.
Through lenses clear, he marked the thread,
Where sickness wove and bodies bled.
His pen as sharp as his keen mind,
In science and in verse combined.
For blood and knowledge, ink and rhyme,
He penned the songs that spanned through time.
A Nobel crown for truth he bore,
His name in echoes evermore.
Two poems by Dr Ronald Ross
- “The Clouds”
This poem expresses Ross’s philosophical view on life, knowledge, and the fleeting nature of existence.
“The Clouds”
As I lay beneath the trees,
Watching out the shining seas,
Came a vision fair and bright,
Clothed about with golden light.
“Son of Man,” it said, “behold,
All the world is dust and gold;
Sun and planet, land and sea,
Are but shadows vain to thee.”
Ross often used poetry to reflect on the grandeur of nature and the mysteries of the universe, blending scientific observation with poetic expression.
- “Lyra”
This poem highlights Ross’s fascination with astronomy and the connection between human existence and the cosmos.
“Lyra”
Above the night, a silver lyre
Is trembling in the sky;
A poet’s hand unseen is there
To strike the chords on high.
Its music falls in waves of light
Upon the earth below;
O tell me, stars that sing at night,
The songs you only know!
This poem reflects Ross’s poetic sensitivity to the beauty of the universe, linking the stars to music and deeper meaning.
- Dr Santosh Karmarkar
(Helped by Ms Shreya Nagpal and Mr Wayne Eustace from TCU office)
– Dr Ronald Ross
-ChatGPT
