COVE

Stanza 89 in The Rubáiyát of Doc Sifers along with this image (see figure 1), convey a greater meaning of the goodness of Doc Sifers by showing what he has gone through in the past. This window into the past of Doc Sifers also reveals some of the trauma he has experienced as a man who practices medicine. In the image, we see Doc kneeling, taking care of a man in a grass field, holding his hand as it appears the man is just waking up. The stanza begins with the line “Doc's own war-rickord wuzn't won so much in line o' fight / As line o' work and nussin' done the wownded, day and night.” Already it is revealed that he was in a war, and judging by the time period he fought in it was most likely the Civil War. Although, due to him being from Indiana and the lack of any explicit mention of it, it's hard to tell which side he fought for. It also shows his value of human life, with him spending most of his time caring for the wounded “day and night” instead of fighting and killing in the frontlines. This also relates to the image, with Doc Sifers tending the man below a full moon on the horizon, driving home the point of his dedication to save lives. The stanza ends with the lines “His wuz the hand, through dark and dawn, 'at bound their wownds, and laid / As soft as their own mother's on their forreds when they prayed....” I think these lines tie in with the image much more than the first, and shows what Doc Sifers meant to those people that were fighting alongside him. It is also interesting how the stanza begins with “day and night” and continues to “dark and dawn” implying that he gave his patients 24-hour care and never left their side. Doc Sifers offered these men, who more likely than not were going to die because of their wounds, a last bit of comfort while they departed from the mortal plain. The last line of the stanza refers to his hands providing the same comfort as a mothers while they prayed. Prayer was very important during the Civil War, with men often praying before and during combat, as it is likely that the prayers that the Doc was saying with the men was one you say before someone dies. Not only was he offering his men emotional and physical comfort, but spiritual as well, offering the people he tended peace as they passed.