Poetry Analysis of "Variation on the Word 'Sleep'"

"Variation on the Word Sleep"
by Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.


The speaker of this poem has an obsessed tone because he or she talks about really wanting to sleep with someone. The speaker wants to "give you [the partner] ... the one word that will protect you" (Atwood 14-15), and they talk about wanting to walk with this person through a peaceful place. The speaker and his or her partner are walking toward the partner's worst fear, so perhaps the speaker wants to help the other person. However, the speaker doesn't want to be seen by the partner, because he or she says "I would like to be that unnoticed" (Atwood 29).

The speaker uses a lot of adjectives in this poem, especially in the second stanza, that create a peaceful, dream-like image. For example, the speaker mentions "watery sun & three moons" (Atwood 10), which was a fantasy-like connotation.

There are many images in this poem. One image is "the long stairway again & become the boat that would row you back" (Atwood 19-21); another is "a flame in two cupped hands" (Atwood 22-23). Both of these images are clearly imaginable.

The speaker uses apostrophe throughout the whole poem, because he or she is most likely talking to someone who isn't physically there. The speaker uses personification in the lines "enter your sleep as its smooth dark wave slides over my head" (Atwood 6-7) because he or she gives sleep human characteristics. The speaker uses a metaphor when he or she says "I would like to be the air" (Atwood 27) because a person can't physically become air.
One pattern is that the speaker repeats the line "I would like to..." several times. Another pattern could be the speaker's wish to not be seen by the person he or she is talking about. Another pattern is the speaker's wish to sleep next to this person.

All of these things contribute to the meaning of the poem, which is even though you might feel that you need to protect someone, ultimately you can't.