Sleepers
Sleepers - meaning Summary
Dreaming Beyond Waking Boundaries
Plath’s poem watches two sleeping figures from an outsider’s point of view and meditates on the boundary between wakefulness and dream. The sleepers appear protected and timeless within a luminous, sheltered room while the observers feel displaced and vulnerable. Imagery of water, mist, and gardens reinforces a sense of gentle stasis. The closing inversion, that the watchers are "a dream they dream," reverses roles and suggests escape into another temporal state.
Read Complete AnalysesNo map traces the street Where those two sleepers are. We have lost track of it. They lie as if under water In a blue, unchanging light, The French window ajar Curtained with yellow lace. Through the narrow crack Odors of wet earth rise. The snail leaves a silver track; Dark thickets hedge the house. We take a backward look. Among petals pale as death And leaves steadfast in shape They sleep on, mouth to mouth. A white mist is going up. The small green nostrils breathe, And they turn in their sleep. Ousted from that warm bed We are a dream they dream. Their eyelids keep up the shade. No harm can come to them. We cast our skins and slide Into another time.
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