The Poem : The Abdominal Exam By Rafael Campo

Upon first glance, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” may appear to simply trace the course of a woman as she impulsively engages in the passion of a one-night stand. Yet, from a psychoanalytic lens, elements in the sonnet function to inform a different interpretation, one that transcends the manifest content of the poem to suggest that the speaker’s distress stems from her repressed homosexuality.

The first stanza depicts two main elements: metaphors and synecdoche’s. The first two lines of the poem set the stage for what this poem is about, “When my heart is not in my mouth, it’s in your hands” (line 1-2). This allows the reader to understand that this man’s heart lies with this woman and that she has complete control over it. This line also describes a synecdoche in which the woman is not actually holding a live organ in her hands as the reader would

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

William Carlos Williams' Doctor Stories tell the realities of being a physician. The physicians in the Doctor Stories tell the careful balance that many doctors face throughout their careers. From addiction to lust, to more, doctors are humans with human emotions. William Carlos Williams proves that doctors can still perform their jobs despite interesting conditions. Through the expression of characters and slight sadness expressed in his short stories, coupled with his expressive poetry, William Carlos Williams conveys the feelings a doctor has that makes them no different than other people.

Anyone who enters cannot leave the cell and therefore once an individual is infected, then, death is the only next probable thing. This painting attracted views from all persons and groups in our society after they realized that handling and addressing the AIDS epidemic is a collective responsibility. Discussions of disease, death, race, sex, drug addiction and homosexuality which are shunned by polite individuals became common topics (Mahoney, n.p.). Gatewood created a scenario where everyone had to acknowledge that the AIDS epidemic was now a threat that needed to be addressed immediately. Humanity ought to give the AIDS epidemic the weight it deserves by advocating everyone to play their role in this collective responsibility of reducing infections and deaths caused by the spread of HIV. Gatewood wanted humanity to realize the price they have to pay for their prudishness and ignorance of AIDS as a killer

Gay’s poem “It Starts at Birth” demonstrates a title that starts at the establishment of ones life, while portraying new experiences, that one gains while enduring life. However, the poem itself illuminates the title of his book Against Which. This close analysis of the title guides the reader through a serious of evaluation and guides the reader to one question, against which? Throughout the poem, the repetition of the tittle repeats ten times. For example, “against which,

The humor and seemingly-comedic personification used in the poem are very different than the theme, and serve as a distraction from the speaker’s pain.

The poem “Faith”, written by Mark Doty in 1995, works to destigmatize Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) through his relationship with his partner, Wally. Since this poem was written in the mid-1990s, it is a progressive piece that focuses on normalizing homosexuality and raising awareness for AIDS. His writing focuses on combatting the largely-held belief that AIDS only affects homosexual men. There was also the idea that there were “good gays” and “bad gays”. “Bad gays” were the ones who had the misfortune to contract HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and “good gays” did not contract HIV. Additionally, he describes the profound effect that a terminal disease can have on a relationship. Doty’s poem represents the idea that true love provides mankind with the ability to conquer fears. The main purpose of his poem is to show his love for his significant other and show the effect that AIDS had on their relationship, strengthening it, while making it more fragile at the same time. Doty’s poem is important because it opens up a non-judgmental conversation about AIDS, which was unique for that time.

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

Benway, a representation of the state’s control, relates Carl’s homosexuality to a disease, saying “We regard it as a misfortune… a sickness… certainly nothing to be censured or uh sanctioned any more than, say, tuberculosis.” By comparing the two, Benway is able to imply that homosexuality is life threatening and contagious. Benway tells Carl that the threat of illness requires the intervention of “authorities concerned with public health.” For this intervention of the state to occur, Carl must concede that he is abnormal, and that it is the state’s responsibility to rehabilitate him. In effect, Carl and other patients create a social stigma of their

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

Within modern-day America, there are certain societal standards based on sexual relationships. Within the poem, the narrator, a young woman, questions why she has to “wear the brand of shame; /whilst he amid the gay and proud/still bears an honored name” (Harper 26-28). Within her poem, Harper exposes the hypocrisy of the

Poetry is much different than any other style of writing. Poets have a way of communicating their message in a much more indirect way than regular writers. One reader may interpret a poem in a way that is drastically different than another. To truly understand a poem, one must understand the author as well. Sharon Olds, an American poet, who is known for her morbid and unhappy poems, writes about various themes including political violence, family relationships, and sexuality (Gale). In Olds’ poem, “The Death of Marilyn Monroe” we see her examining sexuality not only in 20th century, but in today’s age as well. Olds uses the death of a famous sex icon to really show how women were, and are still being sexualized in society.

Sontag’s “The Way We Live Now” and Dark’s “In the Gloaming” both illustrate the affect the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s had on two gay men and their loved ones.

Troye Sivan, who told us, "My youth is yours," has inadvertently snapped the wittiest, most erotic gay selfie of the Millennium. As clever as anything Mapplethorpe shot, this picture, which freezes Sivan's narcissistic youth in a moment of self-inspection and perhaps even admiration, makes good on his popular lyric, even if he now pleads with the internet to wipe it from memory. But the internet never forgets a pretty anus. The selfie is satire and sincere breakthrough, a reimagining of narcissistic mirror-talk and a thrusting of taboo, subculture-confined "anality" into popular awareness. Sivan's sphincter, blithely agape, is a clarion announcing the arrival of the youthful homosexual anus as eye-catcher and eye-holder. The selfie seems to