Forgive Me: Medical Error and the Poetics of Forgiveness

Alexander Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, proposes that "To err is human; to forgive divine." This essay considers the latter half of that proposition and includes quotes from doctors who participated in a study of learning and growing through adversity. Doctors, like poets, find it necessary to put their moral and psychological dilemma into words. Language shapes the experience and offers a means of partial resolution.