What Is The Meaning Of The Poem At The Hospital

Gaurab Chatterjee

Professor: Suderman, James

ENC 1102 – 88155

Date: 29th April 2014

At the Hospital

In David Ferry’s “At the Hospital” a girl has been diagnosed with cancer and is likely to die from it. The narrator who describes the poem seems to be a loved one who cares for this female. Though it is unclear to who is actually narrating the poem it is transparent that individual has in-fact died from the cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, Cancer is a deadly disease that is the result of uncontrollable cell that is constantly dividing. It is benign or malignant depending on the type of growth and how ravenous it is. Benign growth of a cell produces a tumor that is not cancerous because it can be removed and treated further with antibiotics and chemotherapy. A malignant tumor is more deadly due to its capability of spreading to other parts of the body and in this regard is deemed cancerous. The main problem with cancer is finding the initial cell that divides into the multiple cells that it produces that construct into the tumor. Finding the initial “cancer” cell and stopping it would assume one can stop cancer in a body. Therefore when suggesting that the cancer is speaking, one can suggest that it is in fact death that is imposed onto its victim. The speaker also does not seem to grieve and show any sort of emotion assuming that he or she foresaw this event. In some ways one can assume that he or she is happy that this occurred and that the girl is now not in any pain. David Ferry establishes the loss of the narrator through irony, connotation s, and death.

Irony is a literary device that allows a reader to interpret an instance that is quite different from the intended meaning of that certain instance. In Da...

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...life adding an emphasis to death being the final destination for her.

David Ferry has written a very emotional and powerful piece in which he administers the idea of how devastating cancer can truly be. He induces connotations, irony and the theme of death to make the reader understand the true sorrow that the speaker in this poem is feeling without expressing it physically. It accomplishes the fact of how much pain and misery the life of a cancer patient can be and what the family members and friends have to go through to watch his or her loved one pass on without being able to help. It is quite amazing how Ferry can write so much with so little.

Works Cited:

Ferry David. “At the Hospital.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Mays, Kelly J.

New York, Norton 2013. 999. Print.

"What Is Cancer?" - National Cancer Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.