Darkness In Denise Levertov's Eye Mask

In Denise Levertov’s Eye Mask, the dark acts as a source of comfort and life. The speaker thrives off of the darkness and is not ready for what light will bring.

The text says that darkness is a source of comfort. The poem begins with the line, “In this dark I rest” (Levertov 1). The word rest is stopping movement to relax, to refresh, and to recover strength. The text implies that the speaker is able to relax and find strength within the dark. The connotation of rest suggests comfort; therefore, the speaker is comfortable in the dark. Comfort insinuates familiarity. The speaker is familiar with the dark, which explains why he/she is able to find rest within it. Rest is ceasing to engage in a stressful activity, which indicates that the light causes stress to the speaker. The speaker is "unready" for this stress, so the speaker finds comfort in the dark. The text also hints to a specific darkness. It uses the word “this” to imply that it is a certain kind of darkness that is comforting the speaker. Later in the poem, the speaker talks about silk, “Black silk, shelter me” (5). The silk is black and so is the dark. Silk is also a material that fills up as much space as it can and gets in all the spaces. The darkness is filling up every possible spot it can and trying not

The speaker doesn’t want to let the light in. The speaker continues to repeat words like “unready” and “not ready" to show the lack of preparation. The speaker admits that it is necessary for he/she to “grow in the dark” before letting the light in. The title itself sheds light onto how the speaker wants to stay in the dark as long as possible. The significance of the poem is that it shows a new way of looking at the dark. The dark is usually not seen as a comfort, but to the speaker it is. The dark is the good thing and the light is the bad thing. The speaker does not want the light and all that comes with