18 pages • 36 minutes read
And the People Stayed Home
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Disease and Healing
The word “disease” never appears in the poem, yet everything in its text is envisioned as a response to malady. The poem focuses on healing—which is needed when someone or something is unhealthy—and insinuates that the threat to the health of the earth and its human population is manifold. The most immediate danger is the COVID-19 pandemic, although its deadly impact was not fully realized until weeks after O’Meara wrote the poem in March 2020. Few people at the time suspected that the virus would globally kill millions of people.
The poem is a response to the early days of the pandemic, but it also implicitly addresses some entrenched social and environmental maladies. One of these is humanity’s increasing inability to concentrate and pay attention to what is nearby or within due to ceaseless news, social media, and anxious thought. That is why an important part of healing in the poem is being “still” (Line 3) and listening “more deeply” (Line 4), which implies a kind of mental tune-up enabling one to center themself and be genuinely present in engagement with others. Moreover, the idea that human healing would lead to healing the earth hints at the planet’s unhealthy environmental state, with pollution and climate change most readily coming to mind. Thus, the themes of disease and healing are multilayered, as the poem envisions not only the end of the pandemic but also a broader social transformation.
Personal and Global Transformation
The poem’s modest length and simple diction belie its far-reaching vision. While it begins by listing seemingly insignificant changes in human behavior during the lockdown (more time for reading, resting, exercising), it quickly emphasizes that these changes amount to a profound transformation in behavior and thought. People begin to learn “new ways of being” (Line 3) and “think differently” (Line 4). This goes beyond getting in shape and learning a new hobby or craft. It implies a spiritual rejuvenation that could jolt people out of their “ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways” (Line 7) and into a state of increased self-awareness and respect for others. This kind of individual transformation, the poem suggests, is a prerequisite for the social changes necessary for healing the earth. (For a discussion of what “the earth” represents, see Symbols & Motifs.) In this sense, what might appear as a mere topical “pandemic poem,” truly belongs to a long poetic tradition of celebrating personal spiritual transformation as the road toward a global transformation of humankind. Sometimes this theme has religious connotations, as in the Biblical vision of salvation; other times, it is predominantly secular, as in a vision of social justice achieved by influencing individuals’ moral choices. The tone and rhetoric of O’Meara’s poem have strong Biblical resonance, but there is also an emphasis on human beings actively helping each other—especially in the last two stanzas where the focus shifts from personal to communal behavior.
Community
“In the Time of Pandemic” presents the human community as both diverse and united. As they find themselves forced to stay at home and blessed with more free time, people begin engaging in a wide variety of activities. Some individuals prefer to read while others exercise more. There are people who dedicate their time to making art as well as those who spend extra time playing their favorite games. They may find fulfillment in meditation, prayer, or dancing. The poem honors such differences in human interests and inclinations.
At the same time, however, all these people share a desire to make the most of the pandemic-triggered break in their daily routines. They collectively yearn for “new ways of being” (Line 3) and thinking. While they can individually make minor changes, it is only when they are able to come “together again” (Line 9) that more profound changes emerge. First, they communally grieve, helping each other cope with “their losses” (Line 9); then they turn to “new choices” and “new images” (Line 10), seeking to create “new ways to live and heal the / earth” (Lines 10-11). These different choices and new ways are no longer individual since no one person can heal the earth.
The final stanza celebrates communal vision and action as the source of healing power. O’Meara’s poem struck a nerve in 2020 because it stresses the persistence of human agency in the face of the impersonal and overwhelming power of the virus, but it does not limit that agency to individual efforts to survive the pandemic relatively unscathed. Ultimately, the poem promotes collective healing and prescribes communal spirit as the most effective inoculation and treatment for the many ills besieging humans and the planet.
Unlock all 18 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: