Thom Line by line

analysis
Gunn 1000 word
The model essay
Student
Man activities
With
Night
Sweats
 Write down whatever comes to mind when
examining the poem’s title.

The man with

night sweats

Ideas: Why just Ideas: Ideas: What is the Ideas:

“the man” and not What tone is created effect of the poem What are night
a proper name? in the title? being set at night? sweats?
 Ideas
Could happen to
No identity. Coexisting with
anyone.
something
causing worry.

Perhaps this The man with

night sweats
man is in Tone of
need of despair.
compassion.

Nighttime could Mental health

Physical illness is problems – unable
symbolise possible.
something dark. to rest.
The Man
with Night Sweats Stopped upright where I am  
I wake up cold, I who Hugging my body to me   
A world of wonders in As if to shield it from   
Prospered through dreams of heat    Each challenge to the skin.
Wake to their residue,             
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.    As if hands were enough   
I cannot but be sorry To hold an avalanche off.
The given shield was cracked,
My flesh was its own shield:    My mind reduced to hurry,   
The pains that will go through me,
Where it was gashed, it healed. My flesh reduced and
wrecked.
I grew as I explored   
The body I could trust    I have to change the bed,   
Even while I adored But catch myself instead
The risk that made robust,

Experiment with
reading the poem.
Read it aloud to
an audience.
Perform it
dramatically.
Whisper it to
yourself.
The Man
with Night Sweats Stopped upright where I am  
I wake up cold, I who Hugging my body to me   
A world of wonders in As if to shield it from   
Prospered through dreams of heat    Each challenge to the skin.
Wake to their residue,             
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.    As if hands were enough   
I cannot but be sorry To hold an avalanche off.
The given shield was cracked,
My flesh was its own shield:    My mind reduced to hurry,   
The pains that will go through me,
Where it was gashed, it healed. My flesh reduced and
wrecked.
I grew as I explored   
The body I could trust    I have to change the bed,   
Even while I adored But catch myself instead
The risk that made robust,

Task: Secretely
write down what
you believe the
poem to be about.
When done,
compare it with
your neighbour’s
interpretation.
The Man
with Night Sweats Stopped upright where I am  
I wake up cold, I who Hugging my body to me   
A world of wonders in As if to shield it from   
Prospered through dreams of heat    Each challenge to the skin.
Wake to their residue,             
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.    As if hands were enough   
I cannot but be sorry To hold an avalanche off.
The given shield was cracked,
My flesh was its own shield:    My mind reduced to hurry,   
The pains that will go through me,
Where it was gashed, it healed. My flesh reduced and
wrecked.
I grew as I explored   
The body I could trust    I have to change the bed,   
Even while I adored But catch myself instead
The risk that made robust,

Task: Which line is

the most
important, in your
opinion? Be ready
to defend your
decision to your
peers. Why is it so
important?
I wake up cold, I who
Prospered through dreams of heat    Find a word that implies a sense
Wake to their residue,    of despair.
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.   

My flesh was its own shield:    Find an example of contrast in

Where it was gashed, it healed. the poem and explain its
I grew as I explored    meaning.
The body I could trust   
Even while I adored
The risk that made robust, Find an example of past tense
and explain what it might imply.

How many examples of rhyme

can you find? List them.

Can you find an example of

imagery? Explain how it has
been used.

Identify and explain a metaphor.

 What do you think the “world of
A world of wonders in wonders” might refer to?
Each challenge to the skin.

I cannot but be sorry

The given shield was cracked, Why might the man’s flesh be
My mind reduced to hurry,    “reduced and wrecked”?
My flesh reduced and wrecked.

I have to change the bed,    Why does he need to “change

But catch myself instead
the bed”?

Why is the word “reduced”

repeated twice?

What do you think he means by

“my mind reduced to hurry”?

What does it mean when we

“catch” ourselves?
 The word “shield” has been
used 3 times. Why do you think
this is?
Stopped upright where I am   
Hugging my body to me   
As if to shield it from    How does the penultimate
The pains that will go through me, stanza make you feel? Explain
          your response.
As if hands were enough   
To hold an avalanche off.

Why is the speaker so sure the

pains “will go through” him?

What do you think is the

“avalanche”?

What is significant about the

phrase “as if”, and what tone
does this create?
 The Man with Night Sweats
Context:
Thom Gunn wrote a series of elegies to help commemorate
friends who lost their lives to the AIDS virus. This poem’s
purpose is to encourage compassion in the reader and have
us intimately understand what it feels like to suffer with a
terminal illness. “The man” in the poem is dying. His body is
weakening, and in the middle of the night he is experiencing
cold sweats, one of the symptoms of the severely developed
AIDS virus on the body. Why does the male gay community
have a higher risk of contracting HIV? See link for more
info:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/why-do-gay-men-have-an-increased-risk-of-hiv-31327
82

More poem info: https://poemanalysis.com/thom-gunn/the-man-with-night-sweats/

I wake up cold, I who First person voice.
Prospered through dreams of heat    Contrast: cold
Wake to their residue,    sweats.
Prospered contrasts with later in
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.   
the poem: wrecked.
My flesh was its own shield:    Present and past tense constantly blended together as
Where it was gashed, it healed. he remembers the life he once had. Deeply saddening.
I grew as I explored   
The body I couldclinging
personified trust    sheet Residue is ambiguous. The literal meaning is the sweat
Even while I in
is mirrored adored
the tight form. he is producing due to being ill. The implied meaning
The risk that made robust, could be his lost dreams (hopes for the future).

Metaphor for the health he took for granted.

There is a simplicity to the caesura, a truth about cause and
effect that is no longer valid.
Aggressive tone.
Grew and explored are ambiguous: could refer to developing
his identity, or a sexual encounter (or both).

This stanza uses enjambment, where the line flows without

punctuation. This perhaps mirrors the growth of the speaker as
he explored his sexuality and found his identity.

Perhaps the risk refers to unprotected sex.

 Alliteration and enjambment continued: The risk
A world of wonders in previously mentioned develops into a new world of
Each challenge to the skin. wonders.

I cannot but be sorry Metaphorical ambiguity: could be challenging the

The given shield was cracked, speaker’s identity or referring to the sensual passions
My mind reduced
Tone of regret/mourning.
to hurry,    of touch and caress.
My flesh reduced and wrecked.

I have to change the bed,    Second time the speaker’s shield is mentioned.
But catch myself instead Whereas before it healed, now he has contracted HIV
he knows it will not. Onomatopoeia signifies a shift.

Tone of panic at hearing the news of the positive test

result.

Second mention of flesh but whereas before it was a shield, now it is reduced and wrecked.
The virus has sadly started to take hold of the man’s health. Destructive tone.

Normally a mundane task – now a task that seems

harsh and depressing. His loneliness is made intimate.
We feel for this man and wish we could help, but we
are helpless spectators of a ravaging virus taking hold.
Suddenly remembers his situation.
 Adjective to describe the power of the virus.

Confident posture contrasts his weakening health. He is living

with the virus but often suddenly remembers its presence.
Stopped upright where I am   
Hugging my body to me    The first really profound image in the poem. A sense of
As if to shield it from    despair and loneliness is evoked showing us this man is
The pains that will go through me, in need of care and compassion.
         
As if hands were enough   
To hold an avalanche off. Third image of a shield. This time used as a verb,
preceded by as if, perhaps coveying the futility of trying
to fight this virus.

Clear sense of inevitability.

Pluralised, which represents the multiple side effects of the virus, which at a late stage of
development affect the immune system, triggering a range of symptoms.

This metaphor is terrifying and deeply saddening. He repeats

the phrase as if, and expresses the stark fact that this virus will
kill him and his bodily defenses to it will fail.

This poem was written in 1992. A lot has changed since then. The next slide will go over this.
 HIV and AIDS over the years
One official case of the virus being cured:
Timothy Ray Brown was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and straight away began taking
new medication to stop the virus. In 2006, he was diagnosed with Leukemia and had
two bone marrow transplants. So far, it seems he is cured.
Aids is no longer seen as a ‘gay disease’:
Anyone can catch HIV and most people now understand this. It was first spread in
the gay community but it is of course not restricted to this group.
HIV is no longer a death sentence:
Between 1988–1995, 78% of people infected with the virus died – a staggering
number. Between 2005 and 2009 that number dropped to 5%. Today, if a person
with HIV begins antiretroviral medication early, they are expected to have normal
life span.

See link for more info:

https
Essay Questions
1. How does Gunn use imagery to tell a story?
2. What is it about this poem that makes us feel so emotional?
3. How does Gunn encourage us to stop and think about those who
are suffering?

Tips to score top marks

Reference to detail and use of quotations
Understanding of characters, relationships, situations and themes
Understanding of the writer’s intentions and methods
Response to the writer’s use of language
Personal response
A final few questions to help
reflect on the poem’s form
and structure.
I wake up cold, I who A
Prospered through dreams of heat   
Wake to their residue,   
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.    B What do you
A
My flesh was its own shield:   
Where it was gashed, it healed.
notice about
I grew as I explored   
The body I could trust   
B
the symmetry
Even while I adored
The risk that made robust,
C of the rhyme
C scheme and
the structure
D
E
in general?
D
E
A world of wonders in F
Each challenge to the skin.
Where is the
I cannot but be sorry F shift in
structure from
The given shield was cracked,
My mind reduced to hurry,   
My flesh reduced and wrecked.
G
I have to change the bed,   
But catch myself instead H
rhyme to half-
rhyme, and
I
what do you
J
think this
K
represents?
K
 What is
Stopped upright where I am    L significant
about the
Hugging my body to me   
As if to shield it from    M
The pains that will go through me,

final two
         
As if hands were enough   N
To hold an avalanche off.
O
lines’ last
P words:
Q enough/off?
 POINT – EVIDENCE – TECHNIQUE – EXPLAIN – RESPOND
Gunn creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and
main character to help us understand his and others’
experiences. The setting and situation invokes in me a
sense of deep sadness. We learn the man once “prospered”
with a strong immune system that he metaphorically refers
to three times as a “shield”. This holds connotations of
protection. Perhaps Gunn is pointing out the health we
often take for granted and encouraging us to be thankful
and take good care of ourselves. Adjectives and verbs like
“gashed and clinging” create an aggressive tone, mirroring
the aggressive virus coursing through the man’s veins,
waiting to attack him like an “avalanche.” Gunn’s use of
metaphor as he describes the illness as an “avalanche”
sums up the despair and hopelessness felt by sufferers of
the virus throughout the 70s, 80s, and into the 90s.
 POINT – EVIDENCE – TECHNIQUE – EXPLAIN – RESPOND
Gunn creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and
main character to help us understand his and others’
experiences. The setting and situation invokes in me a
sense of deep sadness. We learn the man once
“prospered” with a strong immune system that he
metaphorically refers to three times as a “shield”. This
holds connotations of protection. Perhaps Gunn is
pointing out the health we often take for granted and
encouraging us to be thankful and take good care of
ourselves. Adjectives and verbs like “gashed and
clinging” create an aggressive tone, mirroring the
aggressive virus coursing through the man’s veins,
waiting to attack him like an “avalanche.” Gunn’s use of
metaphor as he describes the illness as an “avalanche”
sums up the despair and hopelessness felt by sufferers of
the virus throughout the 70s, 80s, and into the 90s.
Poetry Portfolio
 Double Page Spread Minimum
Requirements for Each Poem
1. Stick poem in book and annotate in detail.
2. Story of the poem – What happens? What are the
events of the poem? What characters are there?
3. Tone – what mood is created by the poem? Does the
tone change?
4. Form – what type of poem is it? How many stanzas?
What is the metre like? How regular is it? How is it
structured? How could structure or form relate to
meaning? Is there a turn?
5. Message – what could the poet be trying to
communicate with the reader in a wider sense?