Blog #2 - My favorite Writing
All you who sleep tonight, far from the ones you love.
No hand to left or right and emptiness above.
Some for two nights or one, and some for all their years.
In this poem, “All You Who Sleep Tonight”, Vikram Seth, sets a resonating tone by using a short and composite but, effective words in his poem.
No doubt the subject of sleep is universal to us all, he makes it apparent in his first sentence "All you who sleep tonight".
By then following the next line, "Far from the ones you love" he sets the tone of loneliness in a more melancholic light.
He adds more of the loneliness by stating, "No hand to left or right and emptiness above" emphasizing the distance from others in all directions.
Seth then switches the tone to a full 180 by then writing, "Know that you aren't alone, the whole world shares your tears" implying our loneliness is universal to all as well.
But by ending the poem with, "Some for two nights or one, and some for all their years." The message comes to light.
Not just sleep, but death as well is shared with us all.
After letting the overall message of the poem sink in, I felt it was effective and appropriate for it reminded me of the saying "sleep is the cousin of death".
No hand to left or right and emptiness above.
Some for two nights or one, and some for all their years.
In this poem, “All You Who Sleep Tonight”, Vikram Seth, sets a resonating tone by using a short and composite but, effective words in his poem.
No doubt the subject of sleep is universal to us all, he makes it apparent in his first sentence "All you who sleep tonight".
By then following the next line, "Far from the ones you love" he sets the tone of loneliness in a more melancholic light.
He adds more of the loneliness by stating, "No hand to left or right and emptiness above" emphasizing the distance from others in all directions.
Seth then switches the tone to a full 180 by then writing, "Know that you aren't alone, the whole world shares your tears" implying our loneliness is universal to all as well.
But by ending the poem with, "Some for two nights or one, and some for all their years." The message comes to light.
Not just sleep, but death as well is shared with us all.
After letting the overall message of the poem sink in, I felt it was effective and appropriate for it reminded me of the saying "sleep is the cousin of death".
Source: “All You Who Sleep Tonight” – Published by the Penguin Group (1990)
Page 73. “All You Who Sleep Tonight” by Vikram Seth
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