“Variations on the Word Sleep” By Margaret Atwood Essay Essays

â€Å"Variations on the Word Sleep† By Margaret Atwood Essay Essays â€Å"Variations on the Word Sleep† By Margaret Atwood Essay Paper â€Å"Variations on the Word Sleep† By Margaret Atwood Essay Paper In Variations on the Word Sleep the storyteller of the verse form instantly addresses his/her scruples demand to link with the other individual. and they besides recognize the hopelessness of this end: â€Å"I would wish to watch you kiping. which may non happen† ( 1-2 ) . The gap to the verse form. as we see here. could be considered typical of Atwood’s composing in the sense that one individual longs to bond with another. and recognizes the trouble. It is this type of exposure that we have come to anticipate in Margaret Atwood’s Hagiographas. because. as with many feminist Hagiographas. we are cognizant of the power battle between work forces and adult females. and even between adult females. But this verse form refrains from placing sexes ; it merely discusses a deeply internal demand of one individual for another. who is on a journey through the dark labyrinth of their consciousness. The first stanza evolves from a simple supplication from the genderless talker to watch their lover slumber. to a deeper. religious demand. Atwood chooses to stay equivocal in this regard. which helps a wider audience identify with the work. The verse form besides has virtue because within seven short. simplistic lines we glide from a soft yearning to a love composite and intense. with two heads unifying together in a dream: â€Å"I would wish to watch you. kiping. I would wish to kip with you. to come in your slumber as its smooth dark moving ridge slides over my caput. ( 3-7 ) † The action of the verse form continues to germinate as Atwood carries the reader through what appears to be a lover’s dream or phantasy. The storyteller at first wants merely to watch their lover slumber. so he/she desires to come in the same slumber. so envision him/her falling through the beds of consciousness. As the reader follows along with the look up toing storyteller and his or her comrade. they become progressively cognizant of the narrator’s need for transcendency. In the first. 2nd and 3rd stanzas. Atwood uses words that help steer us along the action. such as â€Å"watch. † â€Å"enter. † â€Å"over. † â€Å"descend. † â€Å"follow. † and â€Å"become. † All of these words are effectual in doing the reader feel as if they excessively are faltering along side of the storyteller. urgently seeking to come in the deepnesss of their love. The storyteller is so dying and passionate. that they are willing to follow their lover towards their worst fright in order to protect them â€Å"from the heartache at the centre. † ( 16 ) This is particularly interesting in the facet of feminism because Atwood’s female characters are normally model of accomplishment and authorization. If one is to presume the storyteller in this verse form is female. than Atwood is depicting a adult female trailing her adult male in a despairing effort to go his centre. and even to â€Å"be the air that inhabits you for a minute merely. I would wish to be that unnoticed that necessary. ( 27-30 ) † The word â€Å"unnoticed† here could be seen in a couple different visible radiations. as could the full subject of the verse form. On one manus. the storyteller is cut downing him or herself to being virtually unseeable. by going the air of their lover. Yet on the other manus. she has abstained from placing sexes. and the poesy itself is distressingly honorable and romantic in its portraiture of forfeit. The storyteller is acknowledging that the object of their fondness. whether they are male or female. has a consciousness worth researching. and they are willing to transport this individual off from darkness. The other ground that this verse form should be valued is because of Atwood’s usage of the elements. The imagination of the verse form moves from H2O â€Å"smooth dark wave† ( 6 ) to earth â€Å"forest. cave† ( 6. 9 ) to H2O once more â€Å"become the boat that would row you† ( 21 ) to fire â€Å"a fire in two cupped hands† ( 23 ) so eventually. air â€Å"I would wish to be the air that inhabits you† ( 27-28 ) . The poem â€Å"Variations of the Word Sleep† is an first-class illustration of Atwood’s endowment for uncovering feelings of separations and besides for demoing the love affair in giving up ones’ ain individuality for the interest of love. This subject is non typical to what the populace would see ruthlessly feminist. but Atwood’s Hagiographas redefine the kingdom of what adult females desire and deserve in love.