Re: At the Hospital

David Ferry, At the Hospital

"...the sentence the cancer spoke at last..."

Ferry's poem At the Hospital clocks in at an incredibly short two lines long, an intimidating length for many to try to analyze or understand all of the meaning of. However, the theme of the fight against cancer, hidden behind the metaphor of the cancer's attempt at speech, is clear when giving the poem more than a cursory examination.

This poem is about a woman's fight against cancer, and the poem opens with the claim that this woman "was the sentence the cancer spoke at last". According to this metaphor, the cancer has been working to say something, its statement taking the form of its victim. However, until now it has only been able to speak with "blurred grammar" and hasn't yet become coherent. At this point in time, though, something has changed and its statement has "finally [been] clarified". If the cancer was stymied in its attempts until now, it is only natural to relate this battle to the fight between the cancer and the patient, and so it becomes clear that the patient was the main force preventing the cancer from speaking clearly.

Cancer is a silent disease for part of its lifetime, its presence only becoming obvious in its later, more advanced stages, so it is only fitting that its success in trying to overtake this woman is symbolized by its ability to speak loudly and clearly. In addition, many people who live with cancer attempt to keep the disease quiet by taking drugs to fight it, and going on with their lives as normally as they can. However, often times, cancer cannot be silenced forever, and eventually it forces its way through the barrier of quiet and calm the patient uses to fight back against it. Here, "At the Hospital", and on the woman's deathbed, the cancer is finally able to speak as it wishes, as it in turn silences the patient forever.


Works Cited:

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011. Print.

“Cancer Cells’ Survival Mechanism Identified | TopNews.” Web. 4 Nov. 2012.