Explication of the Poem Insomnia by Dana Gioia - Essay Example

Teacher Explication of the Poem "Insomnia" by Dana Gioia The poem Insomnia is sort of a recollection of Dana Gioia when she cannot sleep. Most likely, her poem is romanticizing that uncomfortable process of thinking things over when one is attempting to sleep but cannot. Such, Dana Gioia must be thinking from her bed (of course it would be difficult to write on her bed but it is possible. The general timbre of the poem is one of regret, that things should have been done this way but was not because of misplaced priorities.

In the first stanza, she set the stage for her restlessness indicating her state – that of insomnia that she cannot sleep. She talked about things that our senses begin to notice when we cannot sleep in the stillness of the night. The pipes clanking, water running in the dark etch was really just figures of speech that she is beginning to notice things she had learned to ignore. In this first stanza, the reader gets the idea that she is fidgety, uneasy and restless due to insomnia. In the second stanza, Dana Goia recalls her regrets.

Things she does not want to think about but is forced to because she cannot sleep. Here, she realized that all that “she’ve worked for these past years, “ were not really that important especially when she stated that it is now in the state of disrepair, the moving things about to become undone. She had twisted the sheets or forced to ignore all the things that could have made her happy because she did not allow herself to love, or did not love because she had material priorities which she realizes now as unimportant.

She escalated this nostalgia in the third and last strophe as she regret the people she ignored or the opportunity to love evident with the many voices that escaped her until now. The venting furnace, the accusations of the clock was really all just figure of speech of her regrets. The furnace is her frustration that needs to be vented and the clock was the opportunity and time she wasted. And this moment of insomnia that gives her terrible clarity to recall all this is killing her. She would like to stay with the current trajectory of her life but this insomnia is forcing her to reflect, giving her useless insight that she does not want to think about.

The poem used many metaphors that meant something else to illustrate the poet’s regret and disappointment that she does not want to think about but is forced to because of her insomnia. The use of powerful words and how they are arranged brings powerful message of the poet’s struggle, that she wanted to maintain her course but her insomnia is making her realize that she on a wrong direction. The words “disrepair” and the many voices that escaped her until now really meant her discontentment or rather, emptiness because of the many chances to be happy that she let go by because of her priorities.

The poem did not say but it is implied that she had her eyes on her career, a pursuit that she needs to be successful that she had to sacrifice a lot of things. It is really a sad poem. A poem about things that we do not want to think about because it discomforts us but we are forced to reflect on them because we cannot sleep.