continuum
MAIN THEMES/ IDEAS:
Sleep/ Insomnia: The poem takes place at nighttime (“moon”) and it starts and ends with the author going or try to sleep (“It’s no possible to get off to sleep”, “paces me back to bed, stealthily in step”). The insomnia of the author leads to a wondering of thoughts in the moonlight. The proximity of sleep in the poem makes this wondering of thoughts more believable. This time of night when thoughts are blurry and it is easy to slip into the unknown and the imaginary (“bright clouds dusted”).
Confusion: The train of thought of the author is unclear as he is practically dosing off. This sensation of confusion is reinforced by the multiple enjambements even between stanzas, ” the chill of/ the planking underfoot rises//in the throat”. The first letter of each verse is not a capital, thus creating this a continuous flow of words, rarely interrupted by a full stop. The enjambements both make and break the fluidity of the poem. Indeed it is very difficult to understand the meaning of the poem when reading it because each sentence is broken down in very unnatural ways (“Better barefoot it out the front//door and lean from the porch across the privets/ and the palms”). The sentences loose some of their meaning in this breaking down. However, it also makes the fluidity of the poem, as we follow the irregular train of thought of an insomniac man in the midst of the night.
Time: At this time of night time looses its value, or rather its length seems to change. This is well represented in the poem, “A long moment stretches, the next one is not on time.” It is technically impossible for a moment to be late, but this image gives a sense of the way time passes when the moon is out.
Identity: There is a conflict in identity in the last stanza. He is the author and just an insomniac man at the same time. His identities walk side by side “the author (…) paces me back to bed”. Confusion on his own being. He speaks of himself at both the third and first person
Sleep/ Insomnia: The poem takes place at nighttime (“moon”) and it starts and ends with the author going or try to sleep (“It’s no possible to get off to sleep”, “paces me back to bed, stealthily in step”). The insomnia of the author leads to a wondering of thoughts in the moonlight. The proximity of sleep in the poem makes this wondering of thoughts more believable. This time of night when thoughts are blurry and it is easy to slip into the unknown and the imaginary (“bright clouds dusted”).
Confusion: The train of thought of the author is unclear as he is practically dosing off. This sensation of confusion is reinforced by the multiple enjambements even between stanzas, ” the chill of/ the planking underfoot rises//in the throat”. The first letter of each verse is not a capital, thus creating this a continuous flow of words, rarely interrupted by a full stop. The enjambements both make and break the fluidity of the poem. Indeed it is very difficult to understand the meaning of the poem when reading it because each sentence is broken down in very unnatural ways (“Better barefoot it out the front//door and lean from the porch across the privets/ and the palms”). The sentences loose some of their meaning in this breaking down. However, it also makes the fluidity of the poem, as we follow the irregular train of thought of an insomniac man in the midst of the night.
Time: At this time of night time looses its value, or rather its length seems to change. This is well represented in the poem, “A long moment stretches, the next one is not on time.” It is technically impossible for a moment to be late, but this image gives a sense of the way time passes when the moon is out.
Identity: There is a conflict in identity in the last stanza. He is the author and just an insomniac man at the same time. His identities walk side by side “the author (…) paces me back to bed”. Confusion on his own being. He speaks of himself at both the third and first person