SONNET TO SLEEP: (John Keats)

O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,--
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.

Poetry of John Keats

http://everypoet.com/archive/poetry/John_Keats/keats_to_sleep.htm

According to the title of the poem, we can interpret its meaning in relations with the poem. The first impression I have had only reading the title “to sleep” was that Keats is addressing to one of the best pleasures that a man can have in this world. Because when you are sleeping your mind is free, you are not worried about what it is happening around you. When you are sleeping, you can go to a peaceful place, where you can go if you want to relax yourself.

Keats is using a personification. He is trying to give a human faculty to something that is abstract, something that we cannot touch. The sleep cannot hear you.

However, if you read the poem we realize that my first impression is closer to the main idea of the poem, although I have introduced some variations. Now, we can interpret the title as the death “O soft embalmer of the still midnight” “O soothest Sleep!” “thy poppy throws” “Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul” Through these verses, Keats is showing that there is something that he wants to forget and if he is still alive, the suffering he feels inside him will be frightening. The only solution is to wait for death.

In my opinion, the author narrates a story about himself. He expresses his feelings which take place in one moment of his life when everything is hard for him. Another interpretation, which can be the correct one is that he is seriously ill “Upon my pillow, breeding many woes” he knows his end is coming and he wishes, if he had to die, he would like everything to take place as soon as possible. He doesn’t want to suffer any more.

First of all, I’m going to talk about the structure of the poem. This is the typical one according to sonnets. This poem is made up of two quartets and two trios. The rhyme is A-B-A-B and A-B-B.

Through the poem we find the use of the first personal pronoun. So, we realize the author is the main character of the poem. “my willing eyes”, “Save me”, “my Soul”. We also find the use of the second pronoun which indicates the presence of the addressee along the poem: “thee”, “thy poppy throws” . But this is not the unique reference to the addressee. The other element, which makes references, is the use of the imperative form in the 5^th verse “close in midst”, 7^th “wait the "Amen”, 9^th and 11^th “Save me”, 13^th “Turn the key” But there is an element that can be interpreted as an invitation to the other world, giving to death physical human aspects “Our gloom-pleas'd eyes”.

When Keats says “close In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes” he is using a metaphor. He is imploring death, to close his eyes and go with her to the other world. This verse continued with “Or wait the "Amen," in my opinion, both act as an “ultimatum”, it is like if he was saying “ please, take me with you now, or wait until I will be blessed” through this, we realize that the author of the poem has a religious ideology. Maybe he is Christian, we don’t know exactly, but what is true is that he thinks that after death there is another opportunity, another life where everything starts again and there isn’t suffering or at least, he thinks he will be better. This is the reason why Keats repeats “save me”. But before dying he wants to receive the last sacrament, the extreme unction “oiled wards”. It takes place when a person is in his last minutes of life and the priest gives him the blessing to go to heaven, making a cross in his forehead using blessed oil.

In the last three verses, the author emphasizes his wishes. In the last one, we can observe a metaphor “ Gasket of my soul” . Here the author is showing us his feelings, he knows that in this world everything is bad for him, he can do nothing to improve his style of life and the last option that he has is to leave what he wants.

In my opinion the author seems to be frustrated, powerless because he depends on the will of God. He is who decides when it’s your time to leave this world. He asks for a better life. There is a melancholic tone. We also can find a contradiction between sadness, which is one of the feelings which invades the author’s heart but on the other hand, we find happiness, a feeling of wisdom that can be interpreted through all the invocations. Another opposition we can find is the elements referred to light and darkness. ”gloom-light” “midst-shine” .

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