On World Poetry Day
Thee must I praise above all other glories
That smile us on to tell delightful stories.
For what has made the sage or poet write
But the fair paradise of Nature’s light?
A poet, as John Keats believed, is a ‘physician to all’
One of the most famous poets of the Romantic era, Keats devoted seven years of his short life as a medical assistant being trained to become a surgeon before he found his true calling in poetry. It is said he experienced the extraordinary sonic power of Edmund Spenser’s poetic language, particularly in the verses of The Faerie Queen, as a source of physical energy, vitality, and wellbeing. His poetic language evolved as he progressed through his training and later, having contracted the then deadly disease of tuberculosis, the experience of his own deteriorating health found expression in his verses, even as his lungs closed, strangling his young life of twenty-five years.
“thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood,
So in my veins red life might stream again”.
It is only natural that poetry find a familiar mileu in Medicine, with both the fields delving into alleviating pain. The Checkup Magazine therefore, on the occasion of World Poetry Day, asked it’s doctor-writers (poets) to share their favourite pieces of poetry (self composed or not)
1 A Haiku by Dr Shishir Shah
Dust, Smoke and Chaos
Everyday and everywhere
Waiting for a better tomorrow?
~Dr Shishir Shah
2. Remembering Augeries of innocence by William Blake
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
The poem is a fantastic ode to the just and nuanced ways of nature. A child with its innocence, animals with their selfless acts service to the order of nature, the plant kingdom that sustains the whole humanity without expecting power or position is where the Godliness truly resides. No religion holds water over these wonderful creations of Almighty.
The ‘learnt’ and the ‘elite’ on the contrary scoff at those not in the position of power ( the working class, the women, the animals). Those who sing the hymns of the virtues like piety, love, and innocence in places of worship often look down, even exploit in the name of God. They postulate silly concepts of heaven and hell and a vengeful God. But Blake disagrees, as he writes “Mercy has a human heart, while pity is revealed in the human face.”
The poem is woke for its time and writing, where Blake urges us to look within (and not at the church), find our inner compass and discard the dictated tenets. It implores us to search for the real Godliness in nature, in the innocence and compassion for all living beings, or face the consequences from the higher power.
The poem starts as a paradox, and goes ahead with various figures of speech, from oxymoron, alliteration, hyperbole and metaphors. No wonder it was well loved by the convent teachers in our time and was taught time and again in the schools.
~Dr Pallavi Sawant Uttekar
3. Remembering The Ballad of Father Giligan by W. B. Yeats
‘He Who is wrapped in purple robes,
With planets in His care
Had pity on the least of things
Asleep upon a chair.’
Poetries held in the pages of school textbooks have a way of sneaking into our thoughts through memories. One such forgotten piece of classic poetry found its way into my daily domestic drudgery leaving a sense of a warm comforting hug that nostalgia often supplies. For who wouldn’t want to be reassured that a power higher than our own looks out for us night and day. Much like Krishna guiding a scared little Gopal through the woods.
For wretched souls who are caught in a tug of war between absolute faith and resolute skepticism, the purity of the story lyrically narrated by Yeats in the above ballad offers divine assurance and healing respite. It remains my favourite to this day.
Do read the verse and it’s synopsis at
https://allpoetry.com/The-Ballad-Of-Father-Gilligan
~Dr. Sai Rane
This World Poetry Day, while medicines heal your body, let poetry soothe your soul. Like the prescription, doctor-writer-poet Danielle Ofri offers: Take two sonnets and call me in the morning.
