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Analysis and comments on Insomniac by Sylvia Plath

Comment 3 of 3, added on January 13th, 2007 at 1:35 PM.

Insomniac is my favourite poem by Sylvia Plath. I particularly like the
stanza about the pills. And the beginning of the next one

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.

That is amazingly well put. I've suffered insomnia since my teens (I'm 34
now). I can vouch she definitely knows what she is talking about.

Gledwood

Gledwood from United Kingdom
Comment 2 of 3, added on November 4th, 2005 at 3:49 AM.

the poem truly speaks of how restless and torturous sleeplessness is. The
confusion affects the person both physically and pyshologically. The way
she depicts the man's pain lets us into the world of a person suffering
from this disease.

charleen from Singapore
Comment 1 of 3, added on August 4th, 2005 at 4:14 PM.

The end of the poem is particularly haunting because it refers to everyone
in the city as being brainwashed, or suffering from the addling disease of
insomnia. The thought of everyone walking around half-dead, half-asleep, is
altogether a creepy image.

Taylor from United States



Information about Insomniac

Poet: Sylvia Plath
Poem: Insomniac
Volume: The Collected Poems
Year: 1961
Added: Feb 20 2003
Viewed: 13027 times


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