Night Sweat By Robert Lowell Flashcards
Context
Lowell suffered with mental illness and psychological problems which mirror in his writing
Form
2 sonnets: classic love poetry
Free verse with occasional couplets
The iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme is messy and mirrors his thoughts
Tone
Gloomy
Melancholic
Reflective
Meaning of poem
The poetic voice is haunted by nightmares from the stress of writer’s block
The only thing that brings him out of this darkness is his wife however he feels like a burden to her because of this
Extended metaphor
The night sweat is constantly used as a metaphor for his anxiety snd self doubt
It clings to him and doesnt let him go - inescapable nature of nightmare and writer’s block that makes it feel eternal
Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp,
Plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom-
But I am living in a tidied room,
For ten nights now i’ve felt the creeping damp
Float over my pajamas’ wilted white…
Consonance: constant thumping that mirrors his heart beat - anxious
His equipment is his thoughts (experiencing writer’s block) are ‘stalled’ - he’s struggling to be in touch with his creativity
‘Tidied room’ is his brain/his mind : suggests that his mind seems neat and tidy but really he’s ‘stalled’ and frozen - paralyzed without ideas (cause of the anxiety)
‘Creeping damp’ the sweat represents his anxiety: shows that his anxiety always comes back slowly and is always following him around / haunting him (eerie atmosphere)
‘Float’ verb choice emphasises the haunting nature of his writer’s block: it hangs over him.
‘Wilted white’: lacking freshness and ideas - he feels out of energy
Sweet salt embalms me and my head is wet,
Everything streams and tells me this is right;
My life’s fever is soaking in night sweat -
One life, one writing! But the downward glide
And bias of existing wrings us dry -
METAPHOR OF SWEAT SALT: represents his sweat - suggests a paralisis because of the anxiety he feels - embalming suggests that the anxiety engulfs him
SIBILANCE: emphasises the constant stream of thought
‘Head is wet’: he feels saturated from everything - further emphasises the engulfing nature of his anxiety
Life’s fever: he feels so tormented and overwhelmed that it consumes his life and has this omnipresent nature (always feels anxious and always thinks about how he cant write)
REPETITION OF ONE: significance of writing in his life - it means everything to him (why not writing has affected him so much
CAESURA OF !: emphasises the ‘writing’ - importance (it stops his world and consumes his thought)
‘Glide’: suggests a spiraling to his anxiety - only increases
‘Existing’: being alive exhausts him of energy and leaves him without creativity / tired
Always inside me is the child who died,
Always inside me is his will to die -
One universe, one body… in this urn
The animal night sweats of the spirit burn
Repetition of always: emphasis of the constant pain and anxiety he feels
The child who died: his innocence and imagination/creativity of being a child that is gone with age
Repetition parallel to line 9: intensifies the consuming nature of writing - it means everything to him
‘Animal’: wild aggressive connotations creates a contrast between physical and emotional sweating (his emotional stress is translating into physical sweating)
‘Spirit burn’: his creativity is burning - translates to his spirit (writing is his spirit : it keeps him alive and makes him who he is)
Behind me! You! Again I feel the light
Lighten my leaded eyelids, while the gray
Skulled horses whinny for the soot of night.
I dabble in the dapple of the day,
A heap of wet clothes, seamy, shivering,
tonal shift: from depression and darkness to words of light and day (suggests something is uplifting him)
Eyes are opening: leaving the nightmare and waking up to daylight/ positivity
‘Leaded’: his eyelids are heavy (the anxiety used to weigh him down into despair)
Horses represent nightmares: bringing him into the dark and ‘whinny’ for darkness and depression ( his thoughts of writer’s block)
Overall light imagery: represents the positivity his wife brings him
Alliteration of d sound: mirrors an upbeat rhythm (optimism of his wife)
I see my flesh and bedding washed with light,
My child exploding into dynamite,
My wife… your light alters everything,
And tears the black web from the spider’s sack
As your heart hops and flutters like a hare.
‘Flesh and bedding washed with light’: the sweat is gone - his wife calms him
His child ‘exploding’: rebirth element - new light (hope) for writing thanks to his wife
CAESURA: Emphasis of her impact on him - appreciation for her
Perfect Iambic pentameter in line in ‘my wife…’ : stability she brings to him
‘Black web’: the old darkness and depression
Her heart ‘hopes and flutters’: anxious connotation - his wife worries for him and his anxiety translates onto her (guilt)
Poor turtle, tortoise, if i cannot clear
The surface of the troubled waters here
Absolve me, help me, Dear Heart, as you bear
This world’s dead weight and cycle on your back.
Tonal shift: guilty, confessional tone - the burden he puts on his wife of always having to take care of him and ensure he’s fine.
Turtle/ tortoise: slow and steady (represents stability)
Connotes a weight that she carries - his anxiety
Capitalisation of Heart: love that he has for his wife
Last line: she’s forced to go on with the burden of his mental health, he feels guilty for being a burden to his wife and hurting her with his mental health issues
