Ten Types of Hospital Visitor - A Classification of Pain - Essay Example

Ten Types of Hospital Visitor- A Classification of Pain In his darkly hilarious ballad, Ten Types of Hospital Visitor, Charles Causley delves deep into the anatomy of human suffering, of human pain and agony and the commensurate classification of the human responses to individual agony, thereby giving way to a virtual gallery of the human temperament and response towards the suffering of one’s fellow human beings. Though, on the surface, the ballad comes out as being emphatically comic and humorous; the poet has certainly managed to endow the poem with deep undertones of gravity, seriousness and concern, thereby, successfully managing to bring out the deep embedded message in a way that is palatable and graspable. There is no denying the fact that in this ballad, Charles Causley has been able to bring home the point that nothing could alleviate human suffering and pain, are they hollow expressions of concern, matter of fact expressions of goodwill, theological messages of salvation and mercy, uttering of familial concern and allegiance, or gestures of friendship ushering out from a sense of fellowship and camaraderie, except for the understanding concern of a fellow human whose is perhaps going through much worse circumstances and angst, thereby enabling a person to rise above one’s pain through personal example. Doing so, Causley has been able to bring out the crux of true human sympathy, sense of concern and empathy, by illustrating the contrary gestures and expressions in an elaborate and discernible manner. The hallmark of Causley’s craftsmanship in conveying a message that is of universal importance and significance is the style he has selected to wrap and convey it, which is the traditional ballad form. No wonder the words and style chosen by the poet are so typical of his body of work, deft at conveying pithy messages in a simple and matter of fact manner. In the given ballad, Causley’s chosen subject is human suffering and human response towards suffering, a topic that has been the prime concern of writers, poets and philosophers since times immemorial. Hence, the ballad form used by Causley is of apt significance in the sense that it not only wrests the interest of the reader by its song like appeal, but, also manages to somewhat surprise the reader by its attempt to convey such a grave truth, in folklore like format and style. The imagery resorted to be the poet is certainly capable of giving a textual form to the intended topic that is human pain and suffering. The poet creates the scenario of a serious patient lying in a hospital ward and the intentions and approaches of the varied visitors that come to see him. The choice is really suitable as the hospitals are not only associated with pain and suffering, but also tend to have another side that is imbued with love, empathy and concern amply symbolized by the “eighth visitor (Causley 237)”, who motivates the patient by the dint of one’s personal example and one’s ability to empathize with the patient by relating to it through personal suffering. One other particular thing about Causley’s design in Ten Types of Hospital Visitor is that he successfully tries to convey the topic enshrined in the poem, which is human response towards suffering through the usage of juxtaposition and contrast, thereby managing to create a gallery projecting all forms of human response towards suffering. Causley’s does so by simply elaborating on the varied people visiting the patient, using words that even a lay reader could understand. The range of Causley’s subjects is expansive and leaves no exception. The very entry of the first visitor “wearing the neon armor (Causley 232)” and the very ability of the patients in pain to be “… incapable of surmounting Her ferocious goodwill (Causley 232)” well prepares the reader for the flavor of things to come in the following stanzas. Thereby, Causley carries on giving way to a gallery of characters marked by hypocrisy, egotism, false sympathy and vanity. The vain gloriousness of the second visitor with, “a melancholy splurge Of theological colors (Causley 232), is followed by the shallow expressions of the third visitor more concerned about the externalities like lobelias, kittens and the slate on the scullery roof. The unsettling angst of the fourth visitor who “has lost his reason” is juxtaposed against the rustic fear and temperament of “a giant from the fields (Causley 234).” Thereby, Causley builds on the frailties and infirmities of the human temperament in one stanza after other, till he brings in an anchor like stability and benign positivity in the poem, by introducing to the readers a visitor who though broken and shattered, still manages to eke out a gesture of empathy and love for the suffering patient, hitherto ushering in a salubrious change of mood and temperament in the poem and the ill patients. Going through the portrayal of the eighth visitor brings to mind a line from an old evangelical that is “In the service of love, only broken hearts will do.” It is actually the portrayal of the eighth visitor that brings to fore the crux of the poet’s intended message that is human suffering is most open to and responsive towards those gestures of empathy that are capable of seeing beyond one’s personal pain and frailty, to eke out a gesture of genuine empathy and love for the sufferings of others. It is only such people who are capable of bringing in true solace in a world marked by so much pain, hypocrisy, egotism, greed, selfishness and irrationality. To put it in a few words, in the poem Ten Types of Hospital Visitor, the poet has resorted to the traditional ballad form and an accompanying, less complex textual style, marked by a smattering of dark humor and a lingering comic appeal, to not only give way to a veritable classification of human responses towards human suffering, but also to highlight the power and appeal of guileless and sincere human concern and empathy. Read More