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Title: Why insomniac?

The title of the poem, insomniac is written to describe a victim of insomnia, and not the disease itself. This detail plays a major role in the theme of the poem, and is therefore important to notice.

cry

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.

Each gesture flees immediately down an alley

Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance

Drains like water out the hole at the far end.

He lives without privacy in a lidless room,

The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open

On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Extended metaphor + Septet

Overall tone: Negative

END

INSOMNIAC

Maliha Khan

SETTING

Personification + Imagery

The night is characterized as a unnatural and synthesized material; carbon paper, to reflect on the focal point of the poem; insomnia which itself is unnatural.

Carbon paper, attached to normal paper is used to make copies of drawings/words. The night sky is compared to the color of carbon paper and creates visual imagery.

EFFECT:

Accent

Creates emphasis on the stars contrasting brightness to the rest of the night as if they were poked into the sky.

Effect:

The speaker states the "poked period of stars" to emphasize the brightness of the star against the sky through an envious tone. It seems almost as if the speaker abhors stars is because they are so bright; hinting that the speaker may be in a dull state.

Apostrophe

Hints the absence of the speaker

The night is only a sort of carbon paper

Blueblack, with the much-Poked Periods of stars

Letting in the light, peephole after peephole ---

A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.

Under the eyes of the stars and the moon's rictus

He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness

Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

SIMILE

Tone, Juxtaposition

  • BONEWHITE light is a direct reference to the imagery death. The juxtaposition of it beside 'White' indicates a contrasting tone towards to color. White is the color of serenity. The fact that it is in the same clause as "Bone" and "Death" make it negative.

  • To add to this, bone-white is used " to form a gentle matt ground tone: simple and sophisticated, with a delicate ambiguity of character" furthermore, hinting towards the ambiguity of the "insomniac"

Noun. Any open-mouthed expression

The imagery created here reflects on Plath's interest of Astrology. As an effect; the moon’s rictus sets a mocking tone towards the lonely insomniac, confirming the fact that he is negatively impacted by all forms of "natural" positivity.

The moon's "rictus" creates the imagery of a new moon smiling at night (setting). The speaker seems to single out this one characteristic as if he/she is paranoid by it.

Diction + Imagery+ Setting:

Assonance of the letter 'E'

The letter 'E' is repeated 8 times in the line, symbolically the number 8 (when written horizontally) stands for the "Infinity" symbol. Through the effect of this, one can infer on the severe and constant strain that insomnia has on the insomniac; the fact that it is never ending.

Tone: Lonely

Personification

Insomnia is personified as a "He". The speaker has done so

to exhibit the role that it plays in her life. Just like any love marriage, the man is very likely to effect the woman's emotions. In this case, Insomnia, or "he" does the same to the insomniac.

The personification of “he” further exemplifies the fact that Plath had intended on writing her poem in third person, because she herself could not admit to being a victim of insomnia.

Tactile Imagery:

The speaker stirs a sense of pain and restlessness due to the "sleeplessness" that the insomniac is dealing with.

Tactile imagery is created when the speaker says "irritating sand". As a result; one forms the image of someone lying on the beach, whilst their skin itches against the grains of sand. Creating irritation.

Insomniac

Over and over the old, granular movie

Exposes embarrassments--the mizzling days

Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,

Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,

A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.

His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.

Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars

Allusion

of the letter "o".

The alliteration of the of the word “o” is symbolic of the never-ending repetitiveness of the insomniac's memories and his tendency to be left lonely without a +1 (+1 being another person.)

Diction + Imagery + Theme

consisting of or appearing to consist of granules : grainy

IMAGERY:

Effect: emphasizes the amount memories the

speaker is replying in their mind.

The ‘granular’ of course, being the wealth of events, and memories that the insomniac is constantly reminiscing of. To tie it all together; this creates the theme of nostalgia.

Diction:

Mizzling: (verb)

To rain in fine, mist-like droplets; drizzle.

Connotation: The mysterious nature of sadness that was a part of the speakers memories is not clear.

Over and over the old, granular movie

Exposes embarrassments--the mizzling days

Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,

Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,

A garden of buggy rose that made him

His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.

Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film starss

Tone +Imagery

The dark imagery created here resembles that of a funeral. Knowing the death of Sylvia’s father, one can easily assume that the “parental faces on tall stalks” is indeed the gravestone of her father which carries a stern expression; because it is made out of stone. The emotional influence is reflected through nature imagery, “Buggy roses...that made him cry”

Consonance of 'ck'

EFFECT:

"As a sack of rocks" is a simile and includes the consonance of "ck'

"

“ck” is a direct standstill for the rocks that the forehead of the insomniac is heavy with. The sound itself is heavy with ‘ck’ and the fact that it is repeated makes the effect of the harshness much more evident. Symbolically the consonance adds to the pain and strain of the insomniac’s memories. His forehead is heavy with the notion of them because he is constantly affected by their emotional impact.

Personification

+ Simile

Memories are figurative and intangible and therefore cannot "jostle" .

The effect of this is to show the wealth of memories that the speaker has through visual imagery of the comparison made to "film stars" who fight over fame because of their vanity and wealth. Similarly, through a simile, the insomniac's memories jostle each other, to perhaps haunt him with his past.

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,

Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars

Letting in the light, peephole after peephole ---

A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.

Under the eyes of the stars and the moon's rictus

He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness

Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie

Exposes embarrassments--the mizzling days

Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,

Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,

A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.

His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.

Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue ---

How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!

Those sugary planets whose influence won for him

A life baptized in no-life for a while,

And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.

Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.

Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.

Each gesture flees immediately down an alley

Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance

Drains like water out the hole at the far end.

He lives without privacy in a lidless room,

The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open

On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats

Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.

Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,

Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.

The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,

And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,

Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

Assonance

of 'er' and 'or'

The repetition of the words “er” and “or” strike the tone of confusion and dilemma. With ‘grey mirrors” being a reflection of the thoughts of dilemma (note: re reflected to er) the reader understands that the insomniac is overcome with his memories.

Tone:

grey is an indication of sullen, depressed

and morbid individual.

Mirrors portray the constant and vivid portrayal of the insomniac's thoughts in regards to the tone.

Simile "Drains like water"

Effect: the speaker emphasizes the fluid nature of "His" memories because just like each water molecule is bonded, each memory is bonded in the mind of this individual.

Personification of each "gesture" of memory, makes it seem

like an object that is viable to move.

Personification

+ Simile

IMAGERY + ALLUSION

Imagery of eyes wide open, "bald slots" (men who are old start balding) indicating that they have been open for quite a while.

Allusion: to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", a grotesque short story in which a blind man with a "Vulture Eye" is murdered. The suspect who kills the old blind man seems to have a distinct hatred for the man's eye.

EFFECT: The speaker indicates that the eye is sensitive to the flicker of "situations" or in this case, memories which the insomniac reviews. In relation to the Tell-Tale-Heart this showcases the gory and dark impact that it has on the insomniac, physically.

Death, Depression, Nostalgia

Insomnia

Themes:

Subject:

Genre:

Background information:

Dark Poetry

  • Written in May, 1961, 4 months after she had had a miscarriage.
  • Plath was known to have been suffering from insomnia in this year as well.

Symbolism

+Enjambment

The stages of which Sylvia went through, to overcome her conflict with insomnia, is a representation of the symbolism present in this line. Going through anger, then a stage of instability in which she decided to take pills (which failed), and lastly ending up in depression.

Alliteration of "i"

+ Author (poet)

intrusion

Her trial of overcoming insomnia is sown through enjambment. Instead of making it a personnel issue she mentions through the characterization of the insomniac.

SYMBOLISM:

Red symbolic of: Anger

Purple: Instability

Blue: Depression

EFFECT: The speaker intrudes the third person narrative

through this alliteration with the vowel "i" by hinting that

it is Sylvia who has been immune to pills. Her frustration

in regards to this matter are obvious in the apostrophe

that follow. The effect of which will be explained in the

slides to follow.

Theme

Suicide is a definite theme of the poem. The sleeping pills the victim of insomnia uses; are immune to his system because he has used them to the extent to which they have no effect on his physical or mental state and thus he is left in the state of insomnia.

The exclamation indicates the mood of this stanza: frustration

Diction:

Tedium: dullness owing to length or slowness

EFFECT: The emphasis is put on

the long and never ending nature of

the night.

Irony:

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue ---

How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!

Those sugary planets whose influence won for him

A life baptized in no-life for a while,

And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.

Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.

Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

Here, it is evident that Plath compares the miscarriage she had had earlier to the lifelessness

of the speaker's dilemma (insomnia). In both

cases she is negatively impacted with the notion of livelihood.

Adding to this, the three colors mentioned in the clause above are also the visual representative of the cycle of a miscarriage.

Red: Production of the fetus (through intercourse)

Purple: the growth, and sprouting of the fetus.

Blue: It's failure to grow = sadness.

Simile.

Plath was known to have never been religious, this is reflected in this line because he has not capitalized "God" either. Her influences in regards to this are sown into the poem as light hints that this poem is not fictional. It is based on her own agenda of thoughts and experiences.

Allusion

+ Irony

In Ancient-Greece, Poppy's were offerings given to the dead. They were known as "The tears of Aphrodite". This is ironic because "Insomniac" is the the reflection of the depression Plath felt whilst dealing with insomnia making this poem, "The tears of Insomnia"

In Ancient-Greece, Poppy's were offerings given to the dead.

In Egypt; they were used to cure pain.

Allusion

INSOMNIAC

By Maliha Khan

The Wrath of Insomnia

This poem is a direct reflection of Sylvia Plath’s struggle with insomnia and her inability to come clean to the disorder. Various sources state that she had been suffering from chronic insomnia, and relied on “ a hypnotic to get to sleep”. The poem is written as a third person narrative. However, one can easily assume that it is a poem based on Plath's own experience with insomnia and thus makes her the speaker. The insomniac, whom she labels "he" is the characterization of her personal struggle with the disease. Staying up night after night, awaiting the arrival of her husband from "work", dealing with the trauma of her recent miscarriage may be one of the possible reasons for keeping the poem as third person. Through imagery, diction and syntax, she describes "memories" as a “granular movie” which exposed Embarrassments--the mizzling days” thus inferring that her memories are the insomniac's only source of entertainment. Her ongoing struggle with suicide is noted when she mentions, “He is immune to pills”. This is a clear reference to her suicide attempts which she then segregates into three categories “red, purple, blue.”. Her struggle to cope with day-to-day life is evident in the last stanza, “everywhere people,...are riding to work...as if recently brainwashed.” The overall effect of this poem leads a edgy and precise outlook on what an insomniac goes through, with enough exaggeration and simple characterization; Plath gives her input on the wrath of insomnia.

Consonance

Last Syllable Rhyme

Effect: To highlight the absurdity the speaker feels

towards "day".

  • A septet is composed of 7 lines. The number 7 is a lucky number in many numerological influences. And thus with this being the very last stanza, the style is contrasted with the bitter point of view of the stanza.

Hyperbole

To exaggerate the hatred of "day."

The insomniac seems to be distort and greatly affected by daylight. This contrasts with the dark theme and setting with the poem, and is perhaps an indication that the insomniac does not only suffer at night, but he also suffers at day. Therefore characterizing him as a overall depressed victim of “life” itself.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats

Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.

Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,

Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.

The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,

And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,

Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

Personification

An envious tone, exhibits

this personification of "Day".

The speaker seeems to hinting towards misogyny. Which may be the author's personal view on women as a whole. in 1961-the date in which she had written the poem, Plath had begun suspecting her husband for cheating on her. This is a clear indication of the way she felt about women at the time; nothing but a negative burden .

Onomatopoeia

+Tone shift.

The tone is positive in comparison to the entire poem itself. This is because the onomatopoeia is intended for mockery regarding the cheerfulness of the people.

Diction+ Imagery + Tone

A shiny silicate mineral with a layered structure (crystals)

Effect: The speaker includes 'mica-silver' when describing 'normal people' who sleep through the night and work through the day to illustrate their liveliness. To contrast with normality, the speaker then refers to their expressions as 'blank' and creates the imagery of an army, which marches to fulfill it's 'duty'. The overall tone of this however, seems resentful.

'r'' Alliteration

the effect is the fluidity and repetitive habits of individuals leading a normal life. The letter "r" is also curved like a walking stick. Hence comparing the only similarity between the state of the insomniac and "normal" people; the habit they have maintained. In contrast to this idea, people who keep themselves busy are likely to end up in retirement. However the only retirement for an insomniac is death (foreshadowing perhaps?)

Works Cited

"Biography." A Celebration, This Is. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.

<http://www.sylviaplath.info/biography.html>.

"Entheology.org - Preserving Ancient Knowledge." Entheology.org - Preserving Ancient Knowledge. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.

<http://www.entheology.org/edoto/anmviewer.asp?a=259>.

"Internal.org Poets." Insomniac. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.

<http://www.internal.org/Sylvia_Plath/Insomniac>.

"Parrot Trick Training." UniversalJournal/AYJW. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.

<http://ayjw.org/articles.php?id=692459>.

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