Poetry in Medicine - Even in War-time the Moon is Beautiful

This month, I continue a multi-issue focus on the poetry of the late physician-poet Merrill Moore, MD (1903-1957), a noted American psychiatrist and neurologist who also achieved fame as a poet and sonneteer. Born and educated in Tennessee, he received his MD from Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1928. While always a prolific poet, he specialized in psychiatry and neurology, conducting a large psychiatric practice while teaching at Harvard Medical School and publishing research on alcoholism, addiction, suicide, and the psychoneurosis of war. During World War II, Moore received a Bronze Star for his service during the Bougainville Campaign as a U. S. Army psychiatrist. He also served during the 1942-44 “invasion” of New Zealand by U.S. troops sent to protect the country and the wider Pacific from the Japanese. This lovely poem is one of my favorites among Moore’s many sonnets. The poet recalls an unforgettable moonlit night he spent aboard a transport ship on its way from San Francisco to Auckland in November 1942. After sailing in seas as empty and monotonous as the “butter and mutton” the men must eat every day, the poet sees the moonshine in the ocean’s foam as representing steadfast, enduring beauty in a world plagued by turmoil and uncertainty. This poem spoke to me during the lowest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and of the need to be mindful of how beauty informs our lives. Even in a pandemic or a world war, the moon can look beautiful. The poem is from one of Moore’s rarest volumes “Experimental Sonnets” published in New Zealand in 1956, one year before his death. Despite his high regard for the classical sonnet, Moore noted in this book’s introduction that he considered his sonnets “experimental”: “I feel that I am experimenting with an ancient and well-used form in an effort to keep it still in use today, rather than allow it to become relegated to the museums of literary antiquities.” In order to do this, he often varied the line form or rhyme scheme or made a special feature of the title, allowing it to be a small poem or prologue itself, as he does in this poem’s title. I encourage you to be present despite the chaos which surrounds the life of any physician. Physicians are invited to submit poems for publication in the Journal either by email at drluciuslampton@gmail.com or regular mail to the Journal, attention: Dr. Lampton.—Ed.