Inoculation

The Inoculation was actually one of the first poems i read throughout our packet. I never wanted to blog about this poem because i found it so confusing. This poem seemed to be about a slave and the disease holding down his freedom even more. I believed the poem was once again a poem about freedom and all the different ways that it was possibly taken away in the time of slavery. Once i heard Jeff talk about the poem to the class i completely understood the poem when spoken to me. The entire class saw it from the eyes of the bible, and slaves. They saw it in the way i did when i first read the peom. Obviously for me not to write about the poem it wasnt because i didnt like it, but because i knew there was more meaning behind the Inoculation. Inoculation means to affect or treat in the medical world. As being a student devoted to learning more about medicine, i realized that this poem about small pox was not only relating to freedom, but also the way the disease was becoming controlled. Small Pox was around for many years killing people of all ages, as the poem was saying, people would find someone already infected with the disease and try to scratch a part of their skin to inject the infectious disease. Although this theory of treatment seemed a little extreme it was rather an experiement that would change the way we control diseases for the rest of our lives. This poem was talking about the beginning fight for freedom amongst slaves, as much as the fight for freedom against killing diseases. Vaccinations was the thought i got out of this poem the more i began to read between the lines. This is my favorite poem it is something that im completely interested in, and its something that most poets dont want to write about. If you dont know the history, most readers wont understand the point of the poem. I think more poems should be history related, rather than love or life or death.