Atwood Variation Margaret Atwood\'s Dreamlike

Atwood Variation

Margaret Atwood's dreamlike poem "Variations on the Word Sleep" offers a lyrical, undulating series of images that resemble the dream state itself. Symbols, metaphors, and piquant imagery allow Atwood to address the non-physical, mystical aspects of the human experience. Her poem does not simply characterize the dream state, however. "Variations on the Word Sleep" encapsulates the state of transcendent love. The narrator uses first and second person personal pronouns to personalize the message of the poem and Atwood uses evocative symbols such as "the small white flower" and allusions to ancient mythology. Thus, "Variations on the Word Sleep" delivers both an intimate and a universal theme: true love is selfless, eternal, and divine.

The narrator's opening line, "I would like to watch you sleeping" is repeated twice in the first stanza for emphasis. However, the two lines are changed slightly by a seemingly insignificant change in punctuation. In the first line, the poet writes, "I would like to watch you sleeping, / Which may not happen." The second line reads, "I would like to watch you, / sleeping." The word "you" is emphasized in the second sentence, whereas in the first, emphasis is on the sleep state itself. Moreover, the narrator states, "I would like to sleep / with you." The goal is not to stare at someone while they sleep as if in sentimental longing and the narrator notes that "may not happen" anyway. Instead, the narrator asks for a deeper intimacy: a shared dream state. If the narrator were awake and gazing at a sleeping loved one, their states of mind would be diametrically opposed. One would be dreaming, the other lucid in the waking world. By "watching you, sleeping," the narrator and the beloved are on the same wavelength, in the same world.

To share the same state of mind, the narrator urges surrender: "to enter / your sleep as its smooth dark wave / slides over my head." Atwood commences a second stanza, leaving a visible gap between that line and the next to symbolize the break in consciousness. The line break indicates entry into the dream state, leaving the waking world for the world of sleep. At that point the narrator states her desire to "walk with you through that lucent / wavering forest of bluegreen leaves." The imagery becomes more vivid, colorful, and fantastic as the dream state deepens. Atwood's descriptions correspond with the differences between the waking and dream worlds. Whereas the waking world is predictable and mundane, in the dream world anything is possible and everything is more exaggerated. The "watery sun" and "three moons" embodies the heightened state of imagination that arises when a person is sleeping. This is the sublime state that the narrator hopes to "watch" in her beloved: Not to intrude or spy, but to understand.

More importantly, the narrator hopes to accompany her beloved "towards your worst fear." This indicates a high degree of compassion and deep love. In fact, the narrator may be writing to poem for her child. The elevated state of consciousness evoked by the tender and loving imagery used in "Variations on the Word Sleep" shows that the motives for "watching" the person in sleep are absolutely selfless, like the love of a parent for her child. The narrator states that she would like to "give" her protective charms, to help the beloved guard against grief. She wants to help guide the person back to the waking state like a divine, loving and eternal presence of spiritual support. Whether the beloved is a child or a lover, the narrator's love is powerfully transcendent.

The English language refers to "falling" asleep and waking "up." Therefore, images of ascending and descending correspond to states of consciousness in Atwood's poem. When falling asleep, the narrator refers to "the cave where you must descend." After encountering the source of "grief at the center," the narrator notes that she would like to "follow / you up the long stairway." Again, Atwood stresses an attitude of selflessness and surrender by using the word "follow" and emphasizing it by placing it at the end rather than at the beginning of the following line. Leaving the word "follow" hanging at the end of the line draws the reader's attention toward it, taking the place of a rhyming couplet.

Likewise, the narrator does not want to "take" the beloved up the stairway because she does not want to interfere with her partner's self will. Even when she wants to protect her beloved from grief, the narrator does not state that she wants to take away or even alleviate that grief. She simply seeks to offer protective tools to strengthen that person's own character. The narrator seems to understand that the beloved needs to travel to the center of that grief in order to get through it and understand the pain. Atwood also urges self-sacrifice for love: the narrator wants to "become / the boat that would row you back." The narrator also offers another mystical symbol: "a flame / in two cupped hands" which serves as a beacon and a guide for the beloved. As the narrator accompanies her charge from sleeping back to the waking state, they row back. This symbol of the river Styx in Greek mythology shows how the sleeping state parallels death: a break with mundane reality or even the true home of the soul.