Christina Rossetti's Sleeping at Last: Exploring the Rejuvenating Effects of Sleep

In her poem Sleeping at Last, Christina Rossetti imaginatively explores the idea of an eternally peaceful slumber that replaces the "trouble and tumult" (2) of life. The speaker in the poem refers to a "her" twice in line 9, alluding to the fact that the speaker and "her" are one and the same, both longing for a blissful escape from "a tired heart downcast" (5). The speaker desires rest and the poem is a description of what serenity she will feel once she is "Sleeping at last" (11).

The American Heritage Dictionary defines sleep as a "natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli." Furthermore, in the Muslim religion, death and sleep are synonymous and the body experiences a "soul sleep" when one dies. According to Near-Death.com, "death is the complete end of physical life and the beginning of a period of rest until the day of resurrection." It is clearly this "end of physical life" (Near-Death.com) and lack of response "to external stimuli" (American Heritage) that the speaker so desperately wishes for as she pleads to the god of sleep for a release from her pain and anguish. "Her" use of repetition in the poem further exemplifies "her" desperation. She repeats "Sleeping at last" five times and "no more" twice in the same stanza to illustrate the urgency of her situation.