The Virus

While the virus in the poem is recognizably HIV, its menace is comparable to that of other viruses that caused major public health crises, including COVID-19. Not only are they both deadly, but when suppressed through vaccination (COVID-19) or medication (HIV), they can still have long-term effects on their victims. There are also similarities in their inequitable social impact: disadvantaged groups of people (gay men, African Americans, poor individuals, etc.) are either exposed to the danger more easily or have less access to preventive measures and treatments. On a more symbolic level, the virus also stands for social injustice more generally—this meaning is subtly but indubitably introduced when the virus’s suppressed but potent presence is compared with “The way anger dwells in a man / Who studies the history of his nation” (Lines 12-13). While there is no reference to any specific event, any thoughtful American (and in different ways members of other nations) can provide examples: slavery, racial segregation, oppression of Native peoples, exploitation of the poor by the wealthy, many forms of sexism and misogyny, to name just a few glaring reasons to be angry. This is not to say that the history of this nation does not offer reasons to be happy and proud as well, but the good does not cancel out the bad.