4. night sweat, robert lowell

worktable, litter, books and standing lamp, plain things

worktable, litter, books and standing lamp, plain things

scrunched-up notes of poems tossed aside

• his writing is mere detritus/debris if it does not satisfy speaker’s rampant perfectionism

work-table, litter, books and standing lamp

lamp is pejorative: it stands sentinel, observing/judging the speaker

• pressuring them to write more and more

… plain things, my stalled equipment… // … my stalled equipment…

the threat of the blank page tyrannises speaker

worktable, litter, books… the old broom —

caesura evinces the discordant, fragmented mind of the speaker

• testament to their distracted mind

for ten nights now i’ve felt the creeping damp float

3 verbs suddenly accelerate the motion of the poem after the listed description

• poet’s attempts to unify night and day result in leaks between the worlds

sweet salt embalms me

juxtaposition: ‘sweet’ implies some part of the speaker enjoys the night fevers

• speaker’s conflicted relationship with the fevers give him a satisfying rush

• embalm: even the speaker’s corpse endowed with afflictions from the writing

everything streams and tells me this is right

speaker’s bodily instincts attempt to justify his excitement at the reverie

one life, one writing!/ one universe, one body

during the reverie, speaker experiences unity and synthesis in his concentrated focus

• when they are immersed in this creative, dream-like state, they can only concentrate on themself & their creativity

behind me! you!

exclamations/short syntax reflect the jarring adjustment to the frustrating day-world

• volta mobilises shift from first sonnet ‘mania’ to second sonnet ‘ode to wife’

i feel the light lighten my leaded eyelids

LIQUID (L) ALLITERATION: reflects speaker’s lifting mood from frantic at the start

while the grey skulled horses whinny for the soot of night

SIBILANCE (S) ALLITERATION: soft wash of sibilance weakens its morbid content slightly

gray / skulled horses whinny for the soot of night

soot & grey-skulled creates morose semantic field of death

• this reminds the speaker of their own mortality: time is running out for them

‘i dabble in the dapple’ of the day

• dabble: speaker merely meanders aimlessly during the trivial daytime

• dapple: patches of light and darkness make their distinctions more ambiguous

  • dapple means a patch of light

a heap of wet clothes, seamy, shivering,

• seams cling to speaker’s body as they are daubed in sordid sweat

• speaker is nothing but a heap of wet clothes: there is something socially immoral/marginalising to crave sleeplessness

your heart hops and flutters like a hare

ASPIRATE H ALLITERATION: aspirate h’s gift the wife a light, aerated quality

• wife helps to alleviate/remedy speaker’s internal conflict

absolve me, help me

IMPERATIVES: speaker solicits help for his sinful spiral of sleeplessness to be amended from his wife’s upward force

• evidence of how much he truly seeks the feverish night dreams

you bear (the world’s) dead weight… on your back

SHIFT TO 2ND PERSON: speaker desires his struggles to be unloaded to his positively charged wife

• hopefully she can bear this weight for him

structure & rhyme scheme of the poem + why its like that

first 14 lines: shakespearean sonnet + shakespearean rhyming couplets

• the speaker feels complete when they have been successful in their pursuit of creative flow, hence the ‘perfect’ shax rhyme scheme

last 14 lines: petrarchan sonnet + fragmented rhyme scheme

• dissonant, jumbled rhyme scheme: reflects how the speaker deteriorates as they is overpowered by the insurmountable day

context about writer

robert lowell lived with bipolar disorder all his life: in this confessional poem, he confesses his obsession and anxiety over his own poetry-writing

example summary quote

‘creeping damp float’ / ‘i dabble in the dapple of the day’ / ‘sweet salt’

summary of poem

• speaker enters an altered state of being at night: a mysterious condition brings clarity and brings forth creative energy until it vanishes each morning

• in this ars poetica, the speaker detaches from reality, diving into dreams and sensations

• he risks illness and mania for the prospect of creativity

• the day-time is a plane of struggle which he seeks his wife to repair

what is an ars poetica + how is this relevant

ars poetica: a poem about the process of writing a poem

• here, speaker’s immersive experience is of writing a poem