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 | On-Line Video |
| Genre | Poem |
| Keywords | Art of Medicine, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Heart Disease, Human Worth, Individuality, Ordinary Life |
| Summary | This is a poem about medical success. The cardiologist speaker addresses a patient in absentia, thinking about the progress of the man's case on the occasion of making a house call. The doctor recalls the valve-replacement operation he performed in his early years of practice and is pleased that, clumsy as the replacement may be next to a good natural valve, it has kept the patient alive for seven years. The speaker sums up his view (in lines often quoted): "Health is whatever works / and for as long." |
| Commentary | The cardiologist and his patient come from very different worlds, we realize, as the speaker recounts with tolerant amusement some idiosyncrasies of the patient's life--things like chewing tobacco, whiskey-filled music boxes, and an illuminated figure of Christ that "turns into Mary from different angles." But finally the poem celebrates these "peculiar" things as signs of a life that has been saved. Near the end the speaker sums up his pleasure with what he has found, saying to his imagined patient: "Here, you / are in charge--of figs, beans, / tomatoes, life." A nice affirmation of patient autonomy! |
| Source | In All This Rain |
| Publisher | Louisiana State Univ. Press |
| Edition | 1980 |
| Place Published | Baton Rouge |
| Alternate Source | Blood & Bone: Poems by Physicians |
| Alternate Publisher | Univ. of Iowa Press |
| Alternate Edition | 1998 |
| Alternate Editors | Angela Belli & Jack Coulehan |
| Place Published | Iowa City, Iowa |
| Miscellaneous | Also published in Stone's collection, Music from Apartment 8: New and Selected Poems (Baton Rouge; Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2004) |
| Annotated by |
Woodcock, John A. |
| Date of Entry |
02/26/01 |
| Last Revised |
10/25/04 |