18 pages • 36 minutes read
And the People Stayed Home
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“How Will This Pandemic Affect Poetry?” by Julia Alvarez (2020)
This is a poem included in Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic (edited by Alice Quinn), which also features O’Meara’s poem. Alvarez reflects on the relationship between poetry and the pandemic, concluding that poetry may help people to live through and survive the pandemic.
“Plague Poem” by Katha Pollitt (2020)
In this poem, also included in Together in a Sudden Strangeness, Pollitt puts the pandemic in the context of other unwelcome news that floods TV screens, and gives voice to fatalism and the sense of defeat that all bad news occasionally engenders: Perhaps the planet would be better off without the human species.
“Invocation” by Major Jackson (2020)
Another poem featured in Together in a Sudden Strangeness, “Invocation” is a kind of prayer invoking images of nature and of people living their lives free from the pandemic in the past and, hopefully, in the future.
Further Literary Resources
“The Daily Round” by Kitty O’Meara (2011-present)
This is Kitty O’Meara’s personal blog, where she has posted many of her poems. “On Healing,” posted on January 10, 2022, is a reflection on how nature teaches important lessons about healing and accepting pain as a necessary component of life. “New Year’s Eve,” dated December 31, 2021, asserts that hope and cheer are essential in tough times like the ongoing pandemic. The poet believes darkness contains seeds of future light and growth. Like “And the People Stayed Home,” “New Year’s Eve” praises the communal values of helping and upholding each other.
In addition to poetry posted on her blog, O’Meara posts her thoughts on domestic and social life, the natural world, and other topics, accompanied by photographs of her pets, other animals, flowers, and landscapes.
“Some Met Their Shadows” by Kitty O’Meara (2020)
This is O’Meara’s response to readers’ questions about the meaning of meeting one’s shadow—the phrase in the third stanza of “And the People Stayed Home.”
“Kitty O’Meara, Author of ‘And the People Stayed Home,’ Opens Up about Writing That Viral Poem” by Elena Nicolaou (2020)
This article for Oprah Daily offers a thoughtful assessment of the poem’s instant impact on the readers and a revealing interview with Kitty O’Meara, who talks about what inspired the poem and her reaction to the poem going viral.
“A Viral Poem for a Virus Time” by Mark Riechers (2020)
In addition to discussing the poem, this article for To the Best of Our Knowledge includes links to other literary responses to the pandemic, as well as two videos: 1) an illustrated reading of the poem followed by the recording of a pianist serenading passers-by during the pandemic; and 2) a recording of a musician performing the song he wrote based on a Spanish translation of the poem.
“The Story Behind ‘And the People Stayed Home,’ the Little Poem That Became So Much More” by Nora Krug (2020)
This Washington Post article contains additional information about (and links to) readings, songs, and other creative variations on O’Meara’s poem.
Listen to Poem
The author Kitty O’Meara reads the poem for CBC Edmonton. The title used in the recording is “In the Time of Pandemic,” but the poem is widely known and elsewhere published as “And the People Stayed Home.”
The opera star Renée Fleming sings the poem set to music by John Corigliano.
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