Michael Angelo in Reply to the Passage Upon His Staute of Sleeping Night
Night Speaks
Michael Angelo in Reply to the Passage Upon His Staute of Sleeping Night - meaning Summary
Seeking Oblivion Over Suffering
The statue voice rejects awareness because consciousness would mean witnessing human shame and injustice. It prefers the oblivion of sleep and even the permanence of marble to the pain of seeing wrongdoing. Sleep and death are presented as merciful escapes: better to remain unawakened, to lie "without life" or to die without grief. The poem frames passivity and silence as refuge from moral suffering.
Read Complete AnalysesGRATEFUL is Sleep, my life in stone bound fast; More grateful still: while wrong and shame shall last, On me can Time no happier state bestow Than to be left unconscious of the woe. Ah then, lest you awaken me, speak low. Grateful is Sleep, more grateful still to be Of marble; for while shameless wrong and woe Prevail, 'tis best to neither hear nor see. Then wake me not, I pray you. Hush, speak low. Come, gentle Sleep, Death's image tho' thou art, Come share my couch, nor speedily depart; How sweet thus living without life to lie, Thus without death how sweet it is to die.
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