"Variations on the Word Sleep"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Margaret Atwood's dreamlike poem "Variations on the Word Sleep" offers a lyrical, undulating series of images that resemble the dream state itself. The paper further looks at how symbols, metaphors, and piquant imagery allow Atwood to address the non-physical, mystical aspects of the human experience.

From the Paper:

"The English language refers to "falling" asleep and waking "up." Therefore, images of ascending and descending correspond to states of consciousness in Atwood's poem. When falling asleep, the narrator refers to "the cave where you must descend." After encountering the source of "grief at the center," the narrator notes that she would like to "follow / you up the long stairway." Again, Atwood stresses an attitude of selflessness and surrender by using the word "follow" and emphasizing it by placing it at the end rather than at the beginning of the following line. Leaving the word "follow" hanging at the end of the line draws the reader's attention toward it, taking the place of a rhyming couplet."

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