Entry 1.3 Poetry Symbolism (Essay 1) - The Horrors of Sleep by Emily Brontë

The Horrors of Sleep

by Emily Brontë

Sleep brings no joy to me.

Rememberance never dies.

My soul is given to mystery,

And lives in sighs.

Sleep brings no rest to me;
The shadows of the dead
My wakening eyes may never see
Surround my bed.

Sleep brings no hope to me,
In soundest sleep they come,
And with their doleful imag'ry
Deepen the gloom.

Sleep brings no strength to me,
No power renewed to brave;
I only sail a wilder sea,
A darker wave.

Sleep brings no friend to me
to soothe and aid to bear;
They all gaze on, how scornfully,
And I despair.

Sleep brings no wish to fret
My harrassed heart beneath;
My only wish is to forget
In endless sleep of death.

This poem I chose is by an English novelist and poet Emily Bronte (Jul 30, 1818 – Dec 19, 1848). She is best known for her novel "Wuthering Heights". She was the second eldest of the Bronte sisters between Charlotte and Anne. It's formed in six paragraphs, where in each paragraphs she talks about her struggle of sleeping. Generally sleeping problems are related to depression and from my observation she wrote this poem with a depressed state of mind. I will break it down to each paragraph with my interpretation.

Sleep brings no joy to me.
Rememberance never dies.
My soul is given to mystery,
And lives in sighs.

In the first paragraph, she is talking about a "joy" sleep supposed to give her. A joy of sleeping usually comes from sexual experience. In that sense "joy" and "rememberance" are related and it gives reader an idea that the reason why she is devastated ; feeling her soul is given to mystery(god, or evil) and living in sighs(troubles, sadness, emotions) are coming from losing the lover that used to bring her joy in sleeping.

Sleep brings no rest to me;
The shadows of the dead
My wakening eyes may never see
Surround my bed.

In this paragraph she is saying sleep doesn't give her any rest. Rest is something fundamental when it comes to sleep and she is not getting it from sleep. Shadows of the dead (dead spirits, souls, ghosts) are surrounding her bed(herself, her room, familiar places) but she may never see them with her wakening eyes(herself being alive, separated from the shadows of the dead). This could also lead to a guess that her lover from the first paragraph (the reason of her depression) maybe dead now.

Sleep brings no hope to me,
In soundest sleep they come,
And with their doleful imag'ry
Deepen the gloom.

From this paragraph we get to know that she "does" sleep sound until they(shadows of the dead) come and make her depressed. These shadows (dead souls) come with their doleful imag'ry (sorrowful faces, sad memories) it makes her more depressed and make it uneasy to sleep and get hope that she could get from sleeping. She may think it's doleful only because she knows them; shadows of the dead maybe her lover, friends or family members that she lost.

Sleep brings no strength to me,
No power renewed to brave;
I only sail a wilder sea,
A darker wave.

This fourth paragraph is related to the second paragraph where she wasn't getting any "rest" from sleeping. Strength is coming from sleeping well and resting. It's a source where human being is getting their energy and power from. Without getting strength and rest from sleep, she is struggling more and more. She sails a wilder sea(having nightmares, sleeping problems). She is clearly suffering from depression; sleeping problem is the first signs of severe depression. Having trouble sleeping and sailing a wilder sea through darker wave; her depression is getting more serious.

Sleep brings no friend to me
to soothe and aid to bear;
They all gaze on, how scornfully,
And I despair.

Here she mentions about getting friend who supposed to soothe aid her to bear; meaning she needs help getting over her struggles and depression. One thing clear is that she knows exactly what she needs from sleeping, or getting over her problems. She knows she needs friend(somebody who'll help her) to soothe and aid (medication, love and support) but instead of helping her and support her they gaze on scornfully and let her struggles.

Sleep brings no wish to fret
My harassed heart beneath;
My only wish is to forget
In endless sleep of death.

In this last paragraph, the word "Sleep" is more powerful than the previous paragraphs. The first "sleep" means resting, and her life that's supposed be, which brings to no wish (hope, positive emotions). Her heart is harassed by the shadows of the dead, her friends who gaze scornfully, and her lost lover who used to bring her joy. She hopes to forget about all the dark memories from sleep endlessly. Interestingly enough, sleep was the one that doesn't bring her anything and made her depressed; she's trying to find the answer, a solution for her problem from sleep. She wishes(think about) suicide, or she could also hoping to get old with her troubles until she gets to the endless sleep and forget about the harsh memories and rough life.

Entry 1.2: Internet Research

A Ghost is considered as a spirit of a human being appears in visible form after the death. The existence of ghost is always controversial between different various points of views and also one's religion, culture or belief in general. I am a Catholic who was taught it is sinful to try to contact or control the dead spirits; at the same time I'm an Asian where the culture is generally built on Buddhism and we have different visions of souls, spirits and ghosts.

Until I decided to post this entry of research about ghosts, I completely forgot about the group name which happen to be Ghostface. Maybe I meant to be this group or I was meant to have ghost in my new apartment. I decided to do a research of ghost and haunted houses when a strange woman's laughing sound from somewhere inside my room woke me up last saturday night. I usually don't get scared by ghosts but this one really bothered me because it woke me up when I only had 4 hours to sleep. This was going to be a problem if it was to happen again.

There is this wonderful community called Ghost Research Society http://www.ghostresearch.org/ where a group of people take reports of the haunted houses, they take action by visiting the site and actively investigate. They also analyze spirit photographs. After my long hours of research in a hope of scaring this strange lady soul from my apartment, this was the only organization that real people are serious about this kind of unexplained issue.

http://www.ghostresearch.org/ghostpics/ghost3.html

(Picture) Girl on the gravestone - A real ghost picture take by GRS member

There are MORE PHOTOS on http://www.ghostresearch.org/ghostpics but I am warning you, click ONLY IF YOU CAN HANDLE THEM.

Western ghosts includes like Vampires and Zombies are all scary but to me Asian ghosts are the scariest thing ever. I thought it was only me because I'm from that culture and I was educated to be afraid of them, but this New York Times article is stressing that Asian ghost stories are the best. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/movies/08RAFF.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5062&en=85cb99708b1fb724&ex=1055649600

I was trying to tell the ghost to leave me alone in a nice way, but I wasn't sure whether I had to tell her in English or in my language. Do people get to understand all the universal languages when the die? Can they read minds already without me having to say it? So many questions but I guess we'll never have the clear answer.

Have some questions? you can also visit http://www.ghoststudy.com/ they are very interactive with the visitors and easy to approach.

About Me

My full name is Jungah Ahn but ever since I came to New York I started to be called by June. At first it was Jun which is the first three words of my real name but people like to spell it "June" with an "e" so now I'm June.

I'm a Music Recording Technology major. I'm interning at Island Def Jam music group of Universal Music, and a part-time songwriter.

I have several 2 other personal blogs where I post 2-3 times a month. I have passion in writing, not just songs but writing in general. I have a lot of interest in things that are supernatural, I also had a great time taking a psychology class researching about dreams. Originally my ENG 102 class was on monday with a different professor which was a traditional writing class. When I learned I will be available on Thursdays I switched to a this section and I think I'll like this one more than what I chose first.