“We Can Only Be As Well / As Our Loved Ones": Medicine, Christianity, and Community in Gwyneth Lewis's A Hospital Odyssey
Kelly Chittenden, PhD Candidate, Baylor University, Waco, TX
“I don’t know that I see poetry and science as diametrically opposed,” the Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis remarks during a 1995 interview. "In fact, they're both provisional ways of describing a creation that is more than both, so they're partners in the world” (25). Lewis’s oeuvre certainly affirms this partnership. In collections such as Zero Gravity (1998), Keeping Mum (2003), and A Hospital Odyssey (2010), Lewis explores the coherence between science and poetry, crafting verses that draw from quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and stem cell treatment. More significantly, she emphasizes that poetry and science must collaborate in service of faith. “The big leap forward came for me when I realised that I was primarily a religious poet,” she continues.“To me, language is only a servant in the project of praising God” (27).
As a “religious poet,” Lewis’s work continuously engages with the intersection between science, religion, and faith. The interplay between poetry, science, and faith becomes particularly evident in her 2010 epic poem, A Hospital Odyssey, in which Lewis transmutes Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Commedia into a modern NHS hospital. Throughout the book-length poem, Lewis fuses Biblical, mythical, pop cultural, and medical language to depict one couple’s perilous journey through cancer treatment. Maris, the central character, grapples not only with her husband Hardy’s illness but also with her body, the hospital system, and detrimental ideologies of health and illness.
While critics have acknowledged allusions to the Odyssey, few have noted the poem's religious references. In this paper, I explore how Lewis employs medico-religious discourse to diagnose the isolating and dehumanizing effects of the contemporary medical system. Throughout the poem, Lewis asserts that poetry, medicine, and religion should aim for wholeness rather than fragmentation. However, both detrimental religious practices and the fragmentation of the medical system exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, the effects of illness. I also illustrate how Lewis proposes a model for health and illness based on the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.
I first discuss how Lewis identifies the flaws in the modern medical system, showing how the hospital system is itself broken and in need of restoration. As one character says, "This hospital / consists of guilds. Each treats a part / so nobody sees the person in full, / Just specialist sections" (19). The poem then advocates for a holistic medical system that sees the fullness of a person’s humanity. Lewis also condemns the notion that illness is the result of individual sin. In one striking instance, Maris must escape a doctor who asks her, "What did [Hardy] do wrong, to get the cancer? He must have done something awful to bring this illness on himself, must have sinned " (29). Lewis undermines this ideology, and in so doing negates harmful ideas of both medicine and religion.
While much of Lewis’s work denounces the depersonalization of the modern medical system, she presents a healing model rooted in the narrative of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. For instance, one character must emulate Christ's crucifixion, sacrificing himself to “surgeon-priests” to free the other characters. Lewis here makes the Christological allusion explicit, writing, “The priests pursue their vivisection, and Maris is Mary at the crucifixion" (104). The book also includes imagery of the Garden of Eden and jubilant imagery from the book of Revelation to show that healing comes through the love, death, and peace of Christ. Lewis also notes the connections between miracles and scientific advancements. For instance, when Maris secures a stem cell transplant for Hardy, she witnesses it falling into her hand "like a miracle” (146). Rather than viewing religious healing and medical progress as opposing forces, Lewis presents them as intimately interrelated.
Finally, Lewis also affirms the connection between healing and community. In the final part of the poem, she writes, “We can only be as well / as our loved ones so, when they fall ill, we suffer” (162). In these lines, she affirms that health comes from incorporation into community, reflecting Wendell Berry's proclamation in "Health is Membership": "I believe that the community - in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures—is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms" (Berry 3). While Lewis's poem acknowledges the pain and suffering of illness, it suggests that healing comes from incorporation into the communal body of Christ. Her magnificent poem ultimately suggests that noticing the coherence between medicine, religion, and poetry is a step toward healing divisions among us.
As a “religious poet,” Lewis’s work continuously engages with the intersection between science, religion, and faith. The interplay between poetry, science, and faith becomes particularly evident in her 2010 epic poem, A Hospital Odyssey, in which Lewis transmutes Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Commedia into a modern NHS hospital. Throughout the book-length poem, Lewis fuses Biblical, mythical, pop cultural, and medical language to depict one couple’s perilous journey through cancer treatment. Maris, the central character, grapples not only with her husband Hardy’s illness but also with her body, the hospital system, and detrimental ideologies of health and illness.
While critics have acknowledged allusions to the Odyssey, few have noted the poem's religious references. In this paper, I explore how Lewis employs medico-religious discourse to diagnose the isolating and dehumanizing effects of the contemporary medical system. Throughout the poem, Lewis asserts that poetry, medicine, and religion should aim for wholeness rather than fragmentation. However, both detrimental religious practices and the fragmentation of the medical system exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, the effects of illness. I also illustrate how Lewis proposes a model for health and illness based on the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.
I first discuss how Lewis identifies the flaws in the modern medical system, showing how the hospital system is itself broken and in need of restoration. As one character says, "This hospital / consists of guilds. Each treats a part / so nobody sees the person in full, / Just specialist sections" (19). The poem then advocates for a holistic medical system that sees the fullness of a person’s humanity. Lewis also condemns the notion that illness is the result of individual sin. In one striking instance, Maris must escape a doctor who asks her, "What did [Hardy] do wrong, to get the cancer? He must have done something awful to bring this illness on himself, must have sinned " (29). Lewis undermines this ideology, and in so doing negates harmful ideas of both medicine and religion.
While much of Lewis’s work denounces the depersonalization of the modern medical system, she presents a healing model rooted in the narrative of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. For instance, one character must emulate Christ's crucifixion, sacrificing himself to “surgeon-priests” to free the other characters. Lewis here makes the Christological allusion explicit, writing, “The priests pursue their vivisection, and Maris is Mary at the crucifixion" (104). The book also includes imagery of the Garden of Eden and jubilant imagery from the book of Revelation to show that healing comes through the love, death, and peace of Christ. Lewis also notes the connections between miracles and scientific advancements. For instance, when Maris secures a stem cell transplant for Hardy, she witnesses it falling into her hand "like a miracle” (146). Rather than viewing religious healing and medical progress as opposing forces, Lewis presents them as intimately interrelated.
Finally, Lewis also affirms the connection between healing and community. In the final part of the poem, she writes, “We can only be as well / as our loved ones so, when they fall ill, we suffer” (162). In these lines, she affirms that health comes from incorporation into community, reflecting Wendell Berry's proclamation in "Health is Membership": "I believe that the community - in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures—is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms" (Berry 3). While Lewis's poem acknowledges the pain and suffering of illness, it suggests that healing comes from incorporation into the communal body of Christ. Her magnificent poem ultimately suggests that noticing the coherence between medicine, religion, and poetry is a step toward healing divisions among us.