Analysis of What I Saw, That Christmas Day
Christmas, day of glorious rejoice and jubilant celebration
Day of family reunions and childhood festivities
Nurses and doctors decked out in scrubs, masks, and gowns
Pounding desperately on a patient’s chest, tears and sweat pouring down their faces
Calling out for another epi, another pulse check, another shock, a chance…
Families crying out and pleading for a loved on to survive
though we know it is futile
Nurses pouring every ounce of strength into saving lives
already on their fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth hour of work
Home for a few troubled hours sleep then back again
And again
And again
Because there is no one else
Because it is desperate
Because people are dying
Grabbing a brightly decorated cookie from the breakroom on the run
Not as a treat, but as the day’s meal
A nurse standing helpless in the hall with tears of frustration and despair
Co-workers hug her in quick comfort
Then rush off to the next crisis
They understand, and they sympathize, and they persevere
Endless admissions and codes and dying and death
Beds available only because so many have died
Five patients waiting for one bed
Some die waiting
Some die later
Which patient is most critical?
Least critical?
A patient needing a higher level of care discovers there is nothing available for miles around
Constantly short-staffed, calls out daily and hourly for help, juggling assignments
Nurses sacrificing their holiday, their sleep, their meals, time with family
Fighting tooth and nail with every ounce of physical and mental strength
For hours days and weeks
The patient dies
We cry
And we persevere
Scheme | abcdefghijJJklmanopqrstumvggwxyz1 2 3 r |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011100010100010 11100010010100 100101101101 10100010101101101110 1011010101011010101 1001010101011101 1111110 101010011101101 010111101011011 1101101011101 001 001 0111111 011110 0110110 1001010010101101 110111011 011010001111010001 110100110 11110110 101011001001 100100101001 10100100111011 11010111 1110 1110 11011100 1100 010100101011010111001001101 10011111001011100010 10100110111111100 101011100111000101 110101 0101 11 01001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,603 |
Words | 268 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 36 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,305 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 265 |
About this poem
Christmas in ICU in 2021
Font size:
Written on December 25, 2021
Submitted by wolfsong79 on April 27, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 38 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"What I Saw, That Christmas Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/126676/what-i-saw%2C-that-christmas-day>.
Discuss this Laura Guarnera poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In