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Literature Annotations

Stone, John Gaudeamus Igitur

	On-Line Text
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Aging, Art of Medicine, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Empathy, Physician Experience
Summary	Gaudeamus Igitur was read by Stone as a graduation address for the class of 1982 at Emory University School of Medicine. The poem begins with "For this is the day of joy," and ends with, "Therefore, let us rejoice." Between these two lines, Stone (both poet and physician) piles image after image, detail on detail, paradox on paradox: "there may be no answer," he writes, "For you will not be Solomon / but you will be asked the question nevertheless." He writes about the sorrows ("For whole days will move in the direction of rain") and difficulties ("For the trivia will trap you and the important escape you") of medicine, as well as about the joys of medicine ("For there will be elevators of elation").
Source	Music from Apartment 8: New and Selected Poems
Publisher	Louisiana State Univ. Press
Edition	2004
Place Published	Baton Rouge
Alternate Source	On Doctoring
Alternate Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Alternate Edition	1995, 2001
Alternate Editors	Richard Reynolds & John Stone
Place Published	New York
Miscellaneous	Also published in Stone’s collection, Renaming the Streets (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1985) and in J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 249: 1741, 1983.
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	12/01/93
Last Revised	08/22/06