(27 March 1901 – 30 June 1971 / Orange, New South Wales)

What do you think this poem is about?

Sleep

Do you give yourself to me utterly,

Body and no-body, flesh and no-flesh

Not as a fugitive, blindly or bitterly,

But as a child might, with no other wish?

Yes, utterly.



Then I shall bear you down my estuary,

Carry you and ferry you to burial mysteriously,

Take you and receive you,

Consume you, engulf you,

In the huge cave, my belly, lave you

With huger waves continually.

And you shall cling and clamber there

And slumber there, in that dumb chamber,

Beat with my blood's beat, hear my heart move

Blindly in bones that ride above you,

Delve in my flesh, dissolved and bedded,

Through viewless valves embodied so –



Till daylight, the expulsion and awakening,

The riving and the driving forth,

Life with remorseless forceps beckoning –

Pangs and betrayal of harsh birth.

Submitted: Thursday, January 01, 2004


Read poems about / on: birth, child, sleep, heart, children

Comments about this poem (Sleep by Kenneth Slessor )

Enter the verification code :

  • Lawrance Pope (5/20/2007 5:17:00 AM)

    I'm not much of a poem fan, however this poem is Fantastic!

    1 person liked.
    3 person did not like.
  • Prospero 78 (11/28/2005 6:15:00 AM)

    such a fantastic poem... seems a precursor to something like Michael Dransfield's 'Epiderm'...

    1 person liked.
    3 person did not like.
  • Erin Padbury (6/7/2005 12:21:00 PM)

    from a person who can't spell 'poem'
    and goes under the name of Richard Head.
    Goodonya mate.

    1 person liked.
    3 person did not like.
Read all 3 comments »

PoemHunter.com Updates

Top 500 Poems

  1. Phenomenal Woman
    Maya Angelou
  2. The Road Not Taken
    Robert Frost
  3. Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou
  4. If You Forget Me
    Pablo Neruda
  5. Dreams
    Langston Hughes
  6. Annabel Lee
    Edgar Allan Poe
  7. If
    Rudyard Kipling
  8. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
    Robert Frost
  9. A Dream Within A Dream
    Edgar Allan Poe
  10. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Maya Angelou
[Hata Bildir]