Hard Rock

One of the poems that we read in class is very interesting. The title of the poem is Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane. Hard Rock was sent to the mental hospital to try and make him behave. Before he left, Hard Rock was known as being the troublemaker of the prison. When he returns to the prison, everyone expects the same old Hard Rock, who is their hero. Instead, they get a weak man who can’t remember his own name. Everyone is disappointed to see that their hero has been tamed. Sadly, they do not realize why Hard Rock isn’t the same. The poem was written in 1968, which was a time when mental hospitals were big. The hospitals didn’t treat their patients humanly. They would split a patient’s brain apart, believing they were doing the right thing. In reality, they were killing them. The doctors would also shoot electricity into the brain. Their methods were cruel. Hard Rock experienced the torment of a mental hospital. When they completed the treatment, they took Hard Rock’s personality and self away from him. This poem shows us how insane hospitals harmed people many years ago.