Sunday, November 13, 2011

For the Sleepwalkers by Edward Hirsch

I thought that the main theme of this poem wasn't really discovered until the second half where the author starts talking about our hearts. At the beginning, he makes it seem that he is talking only about the interesting idea of sleepwalking, but then he mentions that "our hearts are leaving our bodies." Our hearts are out in the world trying to get to certain things, but then they are forced to "fly back" to our bodies. This comparison goes back to the safety the sleepwalker feels. They go where they want to without being afraid just like our hearts do. So then, the theme the author is trying to tell us that we need to just let our bodies have a little faith in what our heart wants. Sleepwalkers welcome things that are normally scary like darkness. In the same way, we need to welcome things that our heart wants even they are scary. And the whole reason we need to do this is so that we can find nourishment from a place that we never would have found if we hadn't tried. It's kind of like the saying "You miss every shot you don't take." In the second stanza he uses the comparison between a stairs and a window, and a doorway and mirror. It's the difference between just watching and actually doing something.

Another sidenote that I just thought was kind of cool was how the author started the poem with the word "tonight". That really emphasizes the sleepwalking and darkness idea that starts the poem.

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