The Sleepers (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
The Poem
In its final version, “The Sleepers” contains 184 lines, in free verse, divided into eight sections with varying numbers of lines. In the first section, the speaker overcomes initial disorientation by fixing his attention on the ordered arrangement of sleepers, from children in their cradles to a mother sleeping with her child “carefully wrapt.” The poet embraces all in his vision, arranging them in pairs of opposites. He pauses to comfort the restless. He lies down with others, to become each and all; he enters their dreams and becomes “a dance” of...
[The entire page is 1472 words long]
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