Poetry in Medicine: An Anthology of Poems About Doctors, Patients, Illness and Healing

by Michael Salcman (Editor), Michael Collier (Foreword)

For millennia poets have described the ailments of the body and those who treat them. Infused with hope, heartbreak, and unexpected humor, this book gathers diverse poems about our medical experiences poems about doctors and patients, remedies and procedures, illnesses and convalescence each one prescribing a unique perspective and new revelations. A literary elixir, Poetry in Medicine showcases not only the breadth of poetry s relationship to medicine, but also the genre s unparalleled capacity to heal us. Contributors include Auden, Baudelaire, Berryman, Blake, Bishop, Boland, Campo, Cavafy, Clampitt, Chaucer, Clifton, Cummings, Dickinson, Donne, Conan Doyle, Eliot, Frost, Gunn, Hall, Hass, Hayden, Hirsch, Heaney, O. W. Holmes, Kooser, Larkin, Longfellow, Lowell, Merrill, Milne, Milton, Nash, Ovid, Pinsky, Plath, Rilke, Shakespeare, Seshardi, Sexton, Stevens, Szymborska, Whitman, Williams, Yeats, et al."

Genres: Poetry

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2015

Reviews

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pure joy to read; should be made available in kindle format; alongside the obvious classics a plethora of contemporary poets take the stage.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poetry relating to all things medicine, illness, death, and healing as well as those involved such as physicians, patients, and family. Medical poetry is still seemingly a new concept although some poems featured in this collection, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost have been part of American poetry for some time now. Blending past and present poets with traditional and nontraditional formats, this collection helps bridge the connection between literature and medicine. An excellent read for healthcare providers and patients alike.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a very long time to read this. It might have been the subject matter or how difficult my life was, but I wasn't having a great time with poetry the last few years. When I finally got down to it, this was a relatively enjoyable anthology.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps not quite a 4-star but definitely better than OK for a poetry anthology. It reads very quickly and most of the poems selected are quite short, perhaps only a stanza or two, with a few poems stretching to 3 or 4 pages.

This is not annotated and I wish it were - some poems had very obscure references to medicine and I would have liked some insight as to why it had been placed with this or that group.

(I had been hoping that Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" was included - I once wrote a term paper for a Victorian poetry class about opiate addiction and imagery in Goblin Market - but no)