Imagine, seeing a loved one’s face and feeling, as if each time you saw them, it were the first time the two of you had met. Visualize a situation where you meet someone new and they ask your name, yet no matter how much you rattle your brain; you are unable to generate an answer. Kelly Cherry’s poem “Alzheimer’s” explains just that; what one who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease may experience. This poem offers insight on the confusion, sadness and loneliness this disabling disease typically evokes. Cherry reinforces the characters bewilderment through the creative use of form and imagery incorporated within this poem.
Though Cherry writes this poem in open form, the form that has been created for this poem appears to be intentional build on the confusion felt by one with Alzheimer’s disease. It is noted that each line of the poem begins with a capital letter. If one reads this poem one line at a time, as if the capital letters were a new beginning for each sentence, it is noticed that a full idea cannot be formed; We are only left with disconnected thoughts, which suggests the thinking process of one suffering from this life altering condition. For example, in line nine “In England, after rain.” This single line alone has no logical meaning to it as it is not a fully developed sentence. Also, in line 27, the speaker says “Standing here in the doorway.” One is left wondering what is standing in the doorway if that line is read alone. Very rarely in this poem is one able to gather a full idea, as seen in line one “He stands in the door, a crazy old man” One is able to visualize a gentleman standing in a doorway, possibly with wrinkles body features suggestive of one who is crazy, such as an expression on his face or ...
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...e from the past and is saddened to be unable to match the face he now sees of this older woman, to the woman he remembers from years earlier. This provokes a poignant, yet very bewildered image of this man within the mind of the reader, a man who tries with all his might to remember himself for who he is now and not only memories from his past.
Though much may not seem intentional, the poet incorporates unique use of open form and imagery to emphasize upon the profound confusion of this man who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. This has accomplished a vision of not only the appearance of a man living with Alzheimer’s but a deeper look into his brain and a profound understanding of how it works, as well as the emotions one with this condition may encompass.
Works Cited
Meyer, Michael. Poetry: an Introduction. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. Print.
Gillick, Muriel R. (1998). Tangled minds: understanding Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. New York: Penguin Group.
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
The story Miss Julianne is an excellent example of patients suffering from dementia. Although one of my family members, my Nana was also a dementia patient, but after reading this textI can relate more to his situation. Miss Julianne is also a dementia patient as she keep-forgetting things and blames others, her aggressive behavior. This story relates to my personal experience, the challenges and the change in my views and opinions and resulted in my emotional response to it.
“Alzheimer’s” is a poem about a man with Alzheimer’s who is coming home from the hospital. The tone in the first few lines initially are very harsh towards the old man with the speaker saying “He stands at the door crazy old man back from the hospital, his mind rattling like the suitcase, swinging from his hand that contains shaving cream, a piggy bank, a book he sometimes pretends to read…”(541). Although the tone sounds insensitive, this could also be the bitterness the speaker feels towards the old man and the
The book, ‘Still Alice’, is written from the perspective of Alice, a woman diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Focusing on Alice’s thoughts, feelings and wishes surrounding her experiences throughout the progression of her condition, as well as the impact which she believes her illness will have upon her family, the story can relate to the emotional state of many individuals during the transition into mental distress. Within the book various themes relevant to social work become evident, however, this review concentrates on the issue of identity and how this can be impacted by loss, as well as societal treatment following a diagnosis of mental illness.
"Confusion, Anxiety, Anger and Pain, Despair" these are some of the words that Kaunie Hagensen uses to describe her condition in the poem Lost. (Hagensen 1999) These feelings are shared by many people today who suffer from, or have family members who suffer from Alzheimer's disease. The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease describes it as being, "a progressive degenerative disease characterized by the death of nerve cells in several areas of the brain. While the most obvious symptom is loss of memory, the disease also causes problems with emotional control, vision, and language." (Turkington 2003, 14) "Alzheimer's disease" has previously been used to describe dementia arising in middle age, but because of the neuropathological differences that have been found, today it refers to a "common primary degenerative dementia occurring later in life" also known as senile dementia. (Evans 1990, 267) The change in the meaning of Alzheimer’s disease occurred prior to the 1960’s. This disease is a problem that primarily affects elderly persons age 85 and older, but recently it has also been associated with adults 65 years and older. As life expectancy increases, so does the impact of the disease, especially in developed countries like the United States. A study that estimated the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the United States used results from East Boston in 1980, and applied them, by age and sex, to population projections for the United States from 1990 to 2050. The results of this study showed that in 1980, 11.3 percent of people 65 years of age or older had Alzheimer's disease. By 2050, the number of persons 65 years of age or older that have Alzheimer's disease in the United States is expected to exceed 10 million. (Evans...
A poem called, “Do not ask me to remember” is written about AD from the view of a person with the disease. The poem starts out with, “Do not ask me to remember, Don’t try to make me understand” (Unknown, n.d) What the person is trying to say here is that it is impossible for them ...
When the man arrives at home from the hospital, he begins to remember that “this is his house” (line 15). This line of the poem is written in “Alzheimer’s” by Kelly Cherry. The poem expresses the confusions and difficulties of a man struggles in life with dementia. The man comes home from the hospital and conflicts with his memory loss; the speaker is close to the man and is frustrated with him at the beginning of the poem, but the speaker’s feeling toward the man eventually shifts to sadness. Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease can be painful and heartbreaking, though people need to understand that familiar environments and with family support can help the patients whose minds are gradually changing. Cherry poetically expresses the
Nerney, C. (2014, April). Dementia. Lecture conducted from Massachusetts’s College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA.
A man already in decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,—what had I to do with youth and beauty like thine own! Misshapen from my birth-hour, how could I delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl’s fantasy! … Nay, from the moment when we came down the old church-steps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-...
Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” features an old woman, Phoenix Jackson, who experiences mental lapses on her walk to the doctor’s office. While her bouts of memory loss and fantasies may seem typical of an elderly woman, the inherent forgetfulness, frequent delusion, and physical deterioration materialize incessantly throughout her daily routine and actions. This advanced degeneration of her weathered mind and the resulting dazed disposition reveal her personal battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Anne Carson’s 38 pages’ anecdote “The Glass Essay,” is about the bad aftereffects of a breakup between the narrator and her husband, Law. After that she goes back to her mother’s house to invest time with her. There is a good measure of narrative about her activity with her mother, her walks on the moorland, and her dreams, many of which are provoking and appearance “nudes” that she uses to guide her way to rebirth. Narrator and her mother stop over her father, who has Alzheimer and in a rest house. The narrator looks so emotional and tries to forget about the past, which represents the two faces of narrator in the poem.
This paper is on dementia, a late-life disorder, as it pertains to the geriatric population. “It is estimated that 24.3 million people around the world have dementia and that, with an estimated 4.6 million new cases every year, we can expect about 43 million people and their families to have to handle the challenge of dementia by 2020.” (McNamera, 2011) I will cover three relevant points concerning this disorder that cause changes in the brain.
“Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality.
Jonas-Simpson, C., & Mitchell, G. J. (2005). Giving voice to expressions of quality of life for persons living with dementia through story, music, and art. Alzheimer's Care Quarterly, 6(1), 52-61.