Water makes many Beds For those averse to sleep -- Its awful chamber open stands -- Its Curtains blandly sweep -- Abhorrent is the Rest In undulating Rooms Whose Amplitude no end invades -- Whose Axis never comes.
Emily Dickinson presents drowning as a kind of unwanted sleep. Water, she says, makes many beds for those who have no desire to lie down. The ocean becomes a vast, open room—its “awful chamber” always waiting, its waves sweeping by like bland curtains. The speaker doesn’t find peace in this image.
Read the full summary