Charlotte Smith: "To Sleep"

Kelley Lonergan - Waldo - 1H

To Sleep

o Written in 1784 by Charlotte Smith
o Page 40 in Norton Volume D
o Theme: Self and Imagination
        o In Romantic period—the self becomes prime focal point
        o Growth of economic self-reliance
        o Introduction of doubt, loneliness
        o Even though given a concept of “self” – still feel as if trapped
        o Madness is evident

o Poem from the Elegiac Sonnets
        o Sonnet form: 14 lines, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
o Sonnet as a “medium of mournful feeling”
o Speaker of poem begs for sleep, but keeps awake
        o Not able to turn off mind
        o Does not have the luxury of exhaustion that the peasant has
o Self-awareness so strong and daunting even the “opiate aid” does not give relief. Ln 13.
o Sleep as metaphor for death
         o Speaker asks sleep “to calm the anxious breast; to close the streaming eye.” Ln 14
         o Cannot escape the self except through death



Lecture on 2.07.08