Analysis of Variation on the Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood
Analysis of “Variation on the Word Sleep” by Margaret Atwood A Canadian writer known as Margaret Atwood writes the poem “Variation on the Word Sleep”. ... Margaret Atwood has made this poem meaningful and unique to anyone who interprets it to his or her own understanding. ... This poem could also be about an ex-lover, whom you greatly miss and yearn to be next to, protecting them while you watch them sleep. ... The speaker then proceeds to say that they would like to sleep with them and to enter their sleep. Sleep could be a reference to death or dying because in the last part of the stanza it says, “I would like to sleep with you, to enter your sleep as its smooth dark wave slides over my head. ... The speaker speaks of wanting to give the person a silver branch, a small white flower, or the one word that will protect them. The silver branch could be some form of good luck, the small white flower could be something so insignificant to someone but may have a deeper meaning to the person, and the one word is something of reassurance that they will be there to protect them. ... While the poem “Variation on the Word Sleep” seems to be about just wanting to sleep next to someone, I have found it to have a different meaning as shown above.