Dying for Sleep

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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). Using the English sonnet as a template, Keats writes To Sleep (Motion 126). The poem uses fourteen lines; each line includes ten syllables. Included within the lines resides an unstressed rhyme pattern; or, more aptly called, iambic pentameter. Also typical of the English sonnet is the creation of three quatrains (each quatrain includes four lines) ending with a rhyming couplet. Traditionally, the rhyme scheme of an English sonnet is abab, cdcd, efef, gg; conversely, Keats creates a modification of this pattern by using abab, cdcd, bc, fefe instead.

In order for the poem to stay in sonnet form, it must include a physical appearance of a sonnet, and describe a conflict within its quatrains; the final lines should resolve the conflict within the ending couplet. Each quatrain in Keats poem discusses different ways in which the speaker desired sleep (or death, which will be touched upon later) or ways in which to coax his body to sleep. Keats ends To Sleep in a non-rhyming couplet, this does not me...

... middle of paper ...

..., Lawrence, and Len Rosen. Writing And Readings Across The Curriculum.

11th. Longman Pub Group, 2010. Print.

Bloom, Harold. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 2. NY, New York: Chelsea House Pub, 2010.

Print.

OED. embowered, adj.

Second edition, 1989; online version September 2011.

; accessed 19

November 2011. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1891.

OED. enshade, v.

Second edition, 1989; online version September 2011.

; accessed 19

November 2011. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1891.

Motion, Andrew. Keats. University Of Chicago Press, 2000. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, prince of Denmark. 2. Harvard University, Digitized

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