Sleep Is Supposed to Be
poem 13
Sleep Is Supposed to Be - meaning Summary
Sleep and Morning Redefined
Dickinson questions ordinary definitions of sleep and morning, suggesting sleep is not mere rest but a solemn station where witnesses stand. Morning, too, is postponed: the poem denies ordinary dawn and locates true daybreak in a transcendent, eternal Aurora. The poem reframes everyday temporal markers as spiritual or apocalyptic events, turning common rhythms into stages of witness and eventual cosmic revelation.
Read Complete AnalysesSleep is supposed to be By souls of sanity The shutting of the eye. Sleep is the station grand Down which, on either hand The hosts of witness stand! Morn is supposed to be By people of degree The breaking of the Day. Morning has not occurred! That shall Aurora be East of Eternity One with the banner gay One in the red array That is the break of Day!
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