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                 Myth - By Natasha Trethewey

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                 Myth - By Natasha Trethewey

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I was asleep while you were dying. A

It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow B

I make between my slumber and my waking A

the Erebus I keep you in, still trying A my favorite line

not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow, B

but in dreams you live. So I try taking A

you back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning, A

my eyes open, I find you do not follow. B

Again and again, this constant forsaking. A

Again and again, this constant forsaking: A

my eyes open, I find you do not follow. B

You back into morning, sleep-heavy, turning. A

But in dreams you live. So I try taking, A

not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow. B

The Erebus I keep you in-still, trying- A

I make between my slumber and my waking. A

It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow. B

I was asleep while you were dying. A

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Erebus: A part of Greek mythology in the dark underworld, where the dead pass through to get to Hades.

Forsaking: The act of abandoning or leaving something/someone.

Rift: A crack or break in something

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Alliteration: "Again and again" (line 9 and 10).

Assonance: You back into morning, sleep heavy, turning (lines 7 and 12 )

Echoes: "I was asleep while you were dying" is repeated at the beginning and end of the poem.

"It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow'- repeated in lines 2 and 17.

"I make between my slumber and my waking."- repeated in lines 3 and 16

"the Erebus I keep you in, still trying"- repeated in lines 4 and 15.

"not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow."- repeated in lines 5 and 14.

"But in dreams you live. So, I try taking"- repeated in lines 6 and 13.

"You back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning"- repeated in lines 7 and 12.

"my eyes open, I find you do not follow."- repeated in lines 8 and 11.

"Again and again, this constant forsaking"-repeated in lines 9 and 10.

The poem is a mirror of itself, there are 2 halves, the first half being lines 1-9 and the second half being lines 10-18. The whole poem is a mirror of itself.

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This poem is written in stanzas

The outer 2 lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, and the middle line of each stanza rhyme from stanza to stanza.

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In every line there is a word with an "s" sound followed by a word with an "ay" sound/"ing" sound which creates contrast. Such as "asleep" and "dying".

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The movie that plays in my head when I read this poem:

A troubled girl lays in her bed tossing and turning relentlessly while she tries to sleep but cannot because she is troubled with the recent death of her husband. The line between her dreams and reality are so blurred that she keeps waking up, thinking that he is still alive, only to remember that he is dead. She sleeps for most, almost all of the day so that she can keep dreaming about their life together, and keep an alive version of him in her head so she doesn't have to face reality. This cycle continues for days, months, where she keeps dreaming of him and is delusional that he is still alive. Her neighbors are worried about her, as they have seen her tossing and turning in her bed constantly, having nightmares, and murmuring strange things to someone who isn't there. Eventually she becomes so gone and depressed that nobody can recognize her, and her family and friends urge her to move on with her life, but she refuses saying she can only live her best life in her dreams. So, she becomes a lost cause and continues with her monotonous life.

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#1: This reminds me of my recent dreams which have seemed very realistic, just a dream about an ordinary day in my life. So when I woke up I was confused if that actually happened or if it was a dream.

#2: Another memory that comes to mind when I read this poem is whenever I have trouble sleeping, I toss and turn and cannot stop overthinking about my problems.

#3: The last memory that comes to my mind is this year when I went to Pakistan, and I got sick with a fever. I was in bed the whole day for a day and a half, just going between slumber and waking, as the poem says. It was a horrible feeling which is the feeling I get from reading this poem.

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I think that the speaker is a woman, because they tend to overthink more than men and feel losses more outwardly. She seems educated, since she has good grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, and knows what the Erebus is. She might be of Greek background, since the Erebus is from Greek mythology, or just a Greek mythology enthusiast. She is obviously very troubled, depressed, and anxious about the future. This can be interpreted from her tossing and turning, and her going between waking and slumber due to the death of someone close to her. She is concerned about the future and how she will be able to continue with her life without the person who recently died. Her social background is probably that she is from a middle-class family.

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This poem is important to me because it shows me what can happen to a person after someone beloved to them dies, and how easy it is to fall into depression. So its like a warning to not become like that if someone close to me dies, and to seek mental help whenever it takes place.