I need a summary of the poem by Poe called "The Sleeper. I need help FAST!!! my report is due in 2 days and I dont understand it! thanks

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

Answers

what is the summary of the cast of amontillado

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2002

When there is a deadline the server invariably is down. PLEASE post earlier! At its simplest the poem is a familiar romantic story of the fair lady who will never awaken(Sleeping Beauty minus Prince Charming) or other stories of sleeping knights, kings, etc. This poem was first titled Irene. Irene of the Destinies actually refers to a Saint of the Eastern Church. There is even a website about her legend, giiving up a throne for monastic life. Here Beauty is kept free from the world though there are gentle but scary intrusions that the poet prays to shield her from. After opening then from an idyllic static bower we go to the intrusions of sound, wind, worm and finally the vault of an ancestral tomb closes over her. That final dramatic image bridging her existence is that as girl she was awake and raised sounds by hitting the vault imagining the echoes were the dead. But now she is in there and there is only silence, stronger than any any previous fancy or memory. Subtle signs of age and change permeate this idyllic sleep with creeping melancholy and the poet is constantly trying to keep her from even ghostly intrusions. As in many of his poems Poe's struggles with Ideal are constantly mired in the borderlands of dream and death. The hope that exists in this silent suspension, this hiatus, is as fragile as a held breath or a delicate trance. Both sides of the tomb threaten more than aid this desire to eternalize something of Beauty and give it eventually life in heaven. No, the ghosts are there, silent, sleeping, full of powerful will(Ligeia) but motionless and oppressing.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2002