Understanding the Modern Pandemics through AIDS Poetry: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Looking back at the AIDS Crisis of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States, through the poems “What the Intern Saw” by Phillis Levin and “How to Watch Your Brother Die” by Michael Lassell, this paper presents an analogy between the past and present pandemics unleashed on modern life. Through the prism of these AIDS poems an attempt is made to illustrate the American history of the AIDS crisis. Akin to the present fears, extreme anxiety and xenophobia engendered by COVID-19, the AIDS pandemic too exploded with similar yet contrasting instances almost four decades ago. Through these poems an attempt is made to connect the condition of the urban gay male community along with the perspectives of the general population. Furthermore, the aim here is to disengage and strip off the social meanings and metaphors that accompanied AIDS so as to look at it as it ought to be seen. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is also compared and contrasted with the AIDS crisis so as to frame a possible narrative for a world after this present health-care emergency.