i s
s suffered frombpd
confessionalpoetry
writer's block
Ad Petrarchan
"Night Sweat"
Volla
luig
seleesi dens
Work-table, litter, books andslanding lamp.
plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom cara
but lam living in a tidied room,
damp. wt-fer
for ten nights now I've felt the creeping damp Swer/
float over my pajamas' wilted white
Cabalm Sweel salt embalms me and my head is wet.
org
'mmy 'everything streannt and tells me this is right,
life's fever is soaking in night sweat
one life, one writikg! But the downward glide guils
and bias of existing wrings us.dry
always inside me is the child who died/,
always inside me is his will to die
Vltazone universe, onebodv
Ithe animal nik 2
l e o to ho Thng w
Behindi
lighten n
skulled h 3
IdabbleIr to pro duce
aheap of
Isee my fle
my child ex Car
lbom (Soword
my wife.
and tearsthe
as your hear
( Poor turtle, to
the surtace of Jornat
absolve me, h
this world's dea Dack.j fula
Line-by-Line Analysis po we
In this section, we'l look at the poem line-by-line to try to gain a more intimate understanding
of its content.
Line 1 /o -
dag So mea tto
The reader is introduced to things-a short list of solid objects, furniture in a room used for t
working, a lamp, books-the usual stuff a writer needs for the daily grind. They're all
wrapped up in pentameter-10syllables, with trochees to the fore (stress on the first syllable
of afoot, such as litter).
Line 2
Itseems there's nothing special about
these
equipment? Is it stalled, broken or about to bethings; they're plain enough. But what about the
mended? Or is it simply paused? Something
that should be working isnt? Here we see
and adash at the line end-the reader ls nesitant syntax, we might say, lots of commas
belng gently shown around the room, this space.
Line 3
The first person speaker appears. lam. | think
exists to convince the body it is so. therefore I am, said Descartes. The mind
And this speaker knows he is living and that the room is
tidied, which suggests that this is a
relief after the litter of the first line. But has the speaker used
up himself? We don't knowyet. the old broom to do the tidying
Lines 4 and 5
The atmosphere changes; we're taken into the
speaker's confidence as he reveals ten nights
worth of creeping damp, oh dear, affecting his white
something organiclike the leaves of a plant. pajamas, which are wilting like
Note the enjambment, when a line flows on into the next
without punctuation to pause it,
carrying the sense on. This speaker is uncomfortable: that's an uncomfortable image the
reader is given.
And so far, all of the lines are pentameters, with a mix of feet:
iambic, trochaic, pyrrhic and
spondaic. For example:
but l/am liv /ing in /a tid /ied room,
for ten /nights now / I've felt / the creep /ing damp
float ov /er my /paja / mas wilt / ed white..
Line 6
Alliteration and sibilance color this line (me and my, Sweet salt) as the graphic images
become more intense and slightly disturbing. What about that word embalms suggesting that
the speaker feels dead or in need of preserving as the sweat surrounds him in his bed.
It's ceretbral, man! His head is wet. He's having to think too much; his dreaming is heavy:
he's working out as he sleeps, making his in-built thermostat work overtime.
Line 7
This line is a ittle more obscure. Evervthing stroo does this mean that he feels aS IT ne s
on a river? In a river? Feels that his sweating is e rafuse it creates the sensation of watery
flow?
Whatever it is, the messages he's getting--the feedhack from these sweats-is a positive
one. That is some relief at this point in time.
Lines 8 and 9
to sweat at
His life is running a temperature; something's getting too hot and he's having
night to douse the flame and cool himself off.
sweat. Perhaps he has
His life is totally focussed on writing and it is this that is making him long
deadlines; maybe it's just the internal agony of havina to wrestle with thoughts all day
then having to get them in the right order so that life runs smoothly.
Line 10
existence-being
But there is a catch. He's writing his life: life is writing, for him, but it is him but a collective
only
that is wringing (the way you would squeeze a cloth out dry). It's not else? or the people
Us So he's gone from concentrating on himself to including everyone
he's living with? His family?
Lines 11 and 12
And there is nowa psycho-emotional element to ponder as the speaker goesLowellinto his past by
know that did have
stating that his inner child is no more ... such a thing to say. We many years.
his mental issues, being manic-depressive and having to take medication over
there is the child who died:
These lines are contradictory or complementary depending
there is the will that lives to die. It seems the inner child isn't happy being dead or is still
willing to die and can't quite manage it because life keeps getting in the way, and the writing
has to be done. This is an integral part of his psyche.
Lines 13 and 14
All is one. His body is an urn (again associated with death and funerals) burning up at night
and turning his emotions to ash.
Lines 15-17
The intermal monologue intensifies, the speaker waking up but not quite into
Consciousnes.,
as the light affects his eyes and he conjures up images of horses who are not happy in the
day but long for the darkness of night.
What do these animals represent? They must be symbols, of the speaker's instincts, active
as he sleeps, producing the sweat with their presence.
Lines 18 and 19
He is definitely awake now, the alliterative dabble-dapple-day straight out of a Gerrard
Manley Hopkins poem.
There he is in his sweaty clothes, shivering as if he just got out of a cold bath, becoming
acutely aware that he is a creature of flesh and blood.
Lines 20-24
The daylight takes to the stage, he's feeling washed by the light, focusing in on the bed, that
sweaty pool he must swim in at night.
A quicksilver change in the next line seesa child...his child by
It's difficult to know at first but the followina line. with mentionofmarriage or his inner child?
his wife, seems to infer that
this child of line 21 is his actual flesh and blood
offspring.
There is great energy in this child exploding into dynamite..wow.
And the wife becomes the source of change, positive change,
getting rid of the black web..a
metaphorical web...straight from the spider's sack as she busies herself in a hare-like
manner (note the simile flutters like a hare).
This is becoming amenagerie of a poem, with horses, spiders and hares so far
appearing.
Lines 25-28
The final animal to make it out of the night sweat is the turtle or tortoise (a tortoise is a land
turtle) which according to the Hindu religion, which is full of animal symbology, is the
creature carrying the world on its back. It is also related to water, music and children in
Greek mythology.
The gist of these final four lines is that the wife is the one who can relieve the burdens of the
day, life's baggage, for the speaker. She is the one entrusted with the weight, the dead
weight, and only she can absolve ( declare guilt free) him.
Heisalso saying thal he is struggling to keep above water, because it can be
his head
choppy and he isn'l so strong when life gets
chalenging.
Analysis of Rhyme
Night Sweat is arhyming poem and seems to have startedlife as a conventional sonnet,
with the first 14 lines having a rhyme scheme:
abbacdcdefefgg
lines and because they are all single
These are all full rhymes which bring familiar closure to
their effects.
syllable rhymes, reinforces the inevitability of the night sweats and
schome but the familiar pattern is changed!
The following 14 lines retain the basic full rhyme
chchicciklmmlk
evident, the full rhyme of white/right from lines 5 and 7carries on into lines 15, 17, 20
As Is end. Note the three syllable rhymes, full,
and 21, with fresh full rhymes continuing on to the
This all adds up to a much more complex reading
of shivering/everythingin lines 19 and 22.
and listening exercise for the reader.
Robert Lowell was originally published in his book "For the Union Dead" in
Night Sweat' by
struggle to versify his thoughts.
1964. It is an autobiographical sketch of the poet's sweat-soaked poet
the poem presents how the
The metaphors used in the first section of
beloved
difficult to write poetry. In the following section, the glowing presence of his
finds it
that he
his heart and infuses him with the energy
wife enlightens his ambiance. She lightens dead
of his
most. In the end, there is a request to his dearest wife to help him out
wants the
thoughts.
Summary
about the speaker's anguish and frustration as he
'Night Sweat' by Robert Lowell talks
struggles with "life's fever"
emotionally complex poem. It's not clear why the
'Night Sweat' by Robert Lowell is an
suffering from night sweats. The metaphorical meaning of "my staled equipment"
speaker is
his
through writer's block. The downward glide of
makes it clear that the speaker is going
pen down that"one writing". However, in the
ability and his previous bias are blocking him to
mind. She has
poem, the poet says his wile's presence lightens his suclh
next secion of the he
that even makes the plain things of his room cheerful. Atlast, requests his
a personality
him from his anguish and frustration as she has done before.
dear wife to redeem
Struclure
Night Sweat' byRobert Lowellcontains two sonnets. The first one is in Shakespearean
sonnet form and the following one is written in the Petrarchan sonnet form. Moreover,
the thyme scheme of the first fourteen-line is "ABBA CDCD EFEF GG". In the following
sonnet, the poel uses the "ABABCDDCEFGFGE' thyme scheme. There are a total of 10
syllables in each line and the overall poem is composed of iambic pentameter with some
variations. There are spondee, pyrrhic, and trochaic variations in the poem.
Literary Devices
'Night Sweat' by Robert Lowell contains several
literary devices. Likewise, there is
an anticlimax in the second line of the
poem, Here, the "stalled equipment" is a
the poet's pen or poetic imagination. There is a metaphor for
personal metaphor in the "tidied room"
Moreover, there is a personification in "creeping damp". Apart
from that, the poet
uses enjambment throughout the poen,
However, in "wilted white" there is alliteration. There
another important metaphor in the phrase, "my life's
fever". It's a reference to the poet's
dead thoughts, The poet also uses
anaphora in the first and second sonnet.
"urn" synmbolizes the body of the poet. It's the use of Moreover, the
metonymy.
Apart from that, there is a simile in the
line, "as your heart hops and
this section, the poet uses flutters like a hare." |In
zoomorphism referring to the hare and tortoise.
by
The exaggerated sense of the
last line makes it an
example of hyperbole.
Detailed Analysis
Lines 1-5
Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp,
plainthings, my stalled equipment, the old
broom-
(.)
float over my pajamas' wilted white
'Night Sweat by Robert Lowell beains with a doeoiatinn f the items that the poetic persona
finds in his room while he struggles to write poeiy He can see some plain things such as
the work-table, litter, books, and a pen on the
standing lamp. His "stalled equipment" or the
table lies as if it has become useless like the "old broom" kept at one side. Here, tne poel
assures readers that he lives in a "tidied room" and those items are at their plaGe, ot
Scattered.
kind of
Thereafter, the poet refers to his physical condition He has been going through some
gives him a creeping
mental turmoil for the past few nights. He is having "night sweats". It
sensation.
Lines 6-10
Sweet salt embalms me and my head is wet,
(..)
and bias of existingwrings us dry
Sweat' by Robert Lowell, the speaker using an Oxymoron says that
In this section of 'Night
thoughts appear in his
his skin is covered with salt. His head is wet. Several
he feels like his "life's fever
says
sure about which he should write. Thereafter the poet
mind. But, he isn't
as if the poet's imagination is soaked with his bodily
in night sweat". It seems
is soaking
Sweats.
But.
one piece that every artist wishes to create in life.
that
Moreover, the poet longs to write his
imagination and the existingbias in his mind makes
the downward glide of his ideas.
infertile. In simple words, the poet is out of
imagination dry or
Lines 11-17
the child who died.
always inside me is
(...)
skulled horses whinny for the soot of night.
section.
poet's mental condition again in this
'Night Sweat' by Robert Lowellpresents the
away. What is left, is also on the verge of
The child-like spirit in his mind has passed
here, the poet uses anaphora.
extinction.Apart from that, for emphasizing the idea present
what he wishes to do and there is
Moreover, the poet says that a person has only a life to do
with
no other "universe" or world to fulfill his dreams. The poet says his spirit is burning
of the first
desires and it also burns his "animal night sweat". In this way. the poet, at the end
sonnet,starts to recOver from his mental block.
In the following section, the wife's presence enlightens the poet. In his life, she acts as a
source of hope and comfort to his blackened eyes. Here, he refers to the activity of the gray
headed horses that whinny in the darkness of the night. The horses seem to be a reference
to his mind that tries to hold him back in such a dark state.
Lines 18-24
Idabble in the dapple of the day,
(...)
as your heart hops and flutters like a hare.
In this section of 'Night Sweat' by Robert Lowell, the poet feels like he is dabbling in daylight
as his wife there to assist him. The repetition of the "d"-sound creates an internal rhyming in
this section reflecting the sense of harmony in the poet's mind. Moreover, the poet looks
around it seems that her light has made everything bright. Now, the gloom has faded and the
sun of his life starts to appear in his sky. The child inside him, previously dead, now wakes
up like the explosion of dynamite.
Thereafter he expresses his gratitude for his wife. He says she tears the "black webs" that
are metaphorically his mental impediments. Moreover, the "spider's sack' is a reference to
the "subconscious mind". Moreover, the poet compares her to ahare for depicting her
energy and spontaneity.
Lines 25-28
Poor turtle, tortoise, if Icannot clear
(..)
this world's dead weight and cycle on your back.
In the last few lines of 'Night Sweat', Robert Lowelladdresses his wife as a "poor turtle" and
requests her to absolve him from this stagnancy. Moreover, the poet refers to the tortoise's
carapace as a "dead weight" and compares it to responsibilities. She does her part
unquestionably. For this reason,the poet counts on her in the hard times of his life.
Historical Context
Night Sweat' by Robert Lowell was published 13 years before his death. The poet had been
suffering from bipolar disorder or "manic depression" throughout his adult life. In this
disorder, aperson goes through periods of depression and periods of abnormally
elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. In this poem, the poet expresses how this
disease was eating his thoughts. Moreover, he also expressed gratitude for his wife through
this poem. She was the only person who was constantly there to help him recover from
depression.
