Dying for Sleep - 1903 Words

The poems To Sleep by John Keats and The Pains of Sleep by Samuel Taylor Coleridge appear to discuss the joy and agony in sleeping; however, the poetry reveals a deeper meaning than sleep alone with insight into events in the individual poets’ life. Poetry is unique, every reader may have a different interpretation than the previous reader, and there is no such thing as a correct reading of a poem. The interpretation of the following poetry starts out discussing sleep; though, with evidence, this reading will prove to reveal a more substantial meaning that heavily relates to the life of the poet in question. John Keats enjoyed toying with many styles of poetry; for instance, in To Sleep he uses the form of the sonnet (Behrens Len 530).†¦show more content†¦In addition, Keats insinuates death using the same words that potentially reveal sleep. For instance, visiting the words, â€Å"enshaded† and â€Å"embowered† again, shows how the darkness that may once have been thought to describe the safety of a blanket or even the dark of the night to help sleep is now another tool to help decipher the clues of death. Shown in line three, Keats writes, â€Å"Our gloom-pleased eyes, embowered from the light† the use of the word â€Å"light† may be representative as life. This may then translate as the speaker saying how he wishes to extinguish the light that is his life with the embowered darkness of death (Behrens Len 530). These images may (potentially) confuse the reader unless there is an understanding of Keats life at the time of this poem. John Keats did not live a long life, only surviving from 1795 – 1821, his original goal in life involved working in the medical field (Motion 76). After some exposure to literature, he soon abandoned his medical passions and shifted his focus onto writing poetry (Motion 328). In fact, he became an apprentice for an apothecary-surgeon in 1811, passed all of his medical exams in 1816 and decided one day that the medical field was just not for him (Motion 47-48). Keats new goal involved surpassing his predecessors in poetry. His trueShow MoreRelatedNursing Paper: Gerontological and Geriatric Nursing1702 Words   |  7 Pagesher spouse or family member. Nurses roles to an elderly palliative client are as follows: Relief client from physical symptoms Providing quality of life-care for an elderly patient Family support Assisting the client to achieve good death or dying well Reducing client isolation, fear or anxiety Relief of social isolation Relief metal anguish Maintaining independent patient Improve quality of life for a client until death Communication support Providing essential information to a clientRead MoreSuicide Soliloquy in Hamlet Essay1210 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeare uses metaphors to express Hamlet’s view of life, death, and the afterlife. Hamlet first introduces the idea of suicide as a way to end the sufferings of life: â€Å"and by a sleep to say we end/ The heartache and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is heir to† (III. i. 69-71). Here, Shakespeare uses the word sleep to refer to death and the heartaches and shocks as the struggles of life. There is also a peace in sleeping that Hamlet wants to obtain in death. By using these metaphors, ShakespeareRead MoreTheme Of Indoctrination In Brave New World1029 Words   |  5 PagesBrave New World, is a great example of indoctrination; it demonstrates the effects of conditioning in the process of dehumanization and the influence of a higher power on society. This becomes apparent through essential factors, such as conditioning, sleep teaching/hypnopaedia a nd the use of soma throughout the novel. To begin, it is clearly expressed in the novel, that Brave New World’s society has been told and instructed how their happiness should be perceived. This conception becomes distinct whenRead MoreThanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant Essay1222 Words   |  5 Pages almost be looked forward to. He then goes on to show how one should really feel when dying. Thanatopsis tells about how when one dies the grave becomes an endless world, how the deceased become one with the earth, the trees, and everything that is great within the earth, and how when one dies they do not die alone. Throughout the poem Bryant creates images which connect death and sleep. In fact, once the reader gets halfway through the poem they discover that Bryant usesRead MoreHamlet, By William Shakespeare996 Words   |  4 Pagesputting it to an end. As the soliloquy advances, Shakespeare uses metaphors to express Hamlet’s view of life, death, and the afterlife: â€Å"To die, to sleep—No more—and by sleep to saw we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to† (III.i.61-64). Here, Shakespeare uses the word sleep to refer to death. He explains that dying is a sleep that ends all the heartache and shock, referring to the struggles of life that is thrown our way. By using these metaphors, Shakespeare shows usRead MoreJohn Donne s Sonnet About Death1189 Words   |  5 PagesJohn Donne’s sonnet about death focuses on the popular opinion (then and now) of death and the process of dying. To Donne, death, a necessary passage to eternity, is pleasant and better than sleep, and many people give death more power and honor than he deserves. Because of its pleasure, Donne theorizes that death releases all pain and grief and is associated with only positive emotions. On the other hand, a rock song released in 2012 called ‘The Fighter’ written by The Fray discusses the fear andRead MoreSleep On It ! Scientific American1010 Words   |  5 PagesAnnika Young Article #2 Stickgold R. 2015. Sleep On It! Scientific American 314:52-57. Questions: 1) How does lack of sleep affect organs in the body? 2) What are prions and why do they cause deterioration in the brain? 3) If familial insomnia is caused by inherited prions, what gene codes for them? 4) Do non-traditional sleep habits (taking several naps instead of sleeping all at once) have the same affect as lack of sleep? 5) Does sleep have some affect on chronic illnesses such as theirRead More Comparing Death in Do not go gentle into that good night and Death Be Not Proud931 Words   |  4 Pageskill me(lines 3-4). This passage shows Donnes belief that people will always overcome death. In Thomas poem, he writes Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in the green bay, / Rage, rage against the dying of the light (7-9). Even the good men are in the end defeated by death according to Thomas. The tone of both of these poems is one of resentment towards death, although in dissimilar ways. In Death Be Not Proud Donne hates death because itRead More Hamlet Essay1107 Words   |  5 Pagestherefore sending him to Heaven if he were to be slain. In addition to his proposal of vengeance, he also contemplates whether it is better to stay alive or commit suicide. If he were to sleep, he feels that all his troubles would vanish, and this would not be such a bad thing. However, he says that if he were to sleep, he might have disturbing dreams while in slumber which would be wholly undesirable. Hamlet knows that what he wishes to do to his uncle is sinful and wrong, but it is this train of thoughtRead MoreThe Moral Issue Of Euthanasia1212 Words   |  5 Pages1. For this assignment I chose the moral issue of Euthanasia. The case study is about a 20 year old woman dying of ovarian cancer and decides to be euthanized. I feel that this case was extremely relevant, especially with the rise of trend in today’s society. Euthanasia is currently a very popular thing that is continuing to grow in other states as congress decides whether or not to make it legal or refuse to pass it and keep it as illegal. I feel that by looking at this case study I hope to