"The Man with Night Sweats" by Thom Gunn- Explication

The poem begins with tactile imagery. The man wakes up feeling cold yet that feeling is juxtaposed with heat which he says come from his dreams. His describes his dreams as “dreams of heat” which creates images of passion and anguish and thus allow the reader to imagine their own ideas of what the dreams could be about. The man awakens to sweat drenched in his sheets and still holding on to his bed. The first stanza exhibits a tone of uneasiness due to the man’s apparent nature from awakening from a tumultuous dream.

                The second stanza describes his flesh as a shield that was penetrated by the sweats brought on by his dreams. The difference between his skin and a shield is that his skin can heal itself thus he can heal himself.  In the third stanza, he talks about his growth through trusting his body even while participating in risky behaviors that made him feel strong or “robust”. These images of gnashed skin and risky feelings along with night sweats from the first stanza could mean that the voice of the poem is experiencing a debilitating disease against the body.

                The next two stanzas continue to discuss the skin, this time referring to challenges that come across the skin. These “challenges” could be rashes, sores, or lesions. He also mentions that he cannot apologize for what has happened to him. His flesh is withering away along with his mind and overall being. 

                In the next stanza he states “I have to change the bed, but catch myself instead.” This line is poignant because he is saying that he is tired and needs to fix himself before fixing his bed. The last six lines encapsulate what the man is thinking and feeling all through imagery. He recalls hugging his own body as means to get rid of the pain his body is giving him, the pain he compares to an avalanche. When I first read this poem I was confused as to why night sweats upset this man so much and thinking that maybe his dreams caused the change of temperature and homeostasis in his body. Now reading over and over it is clear to me that it could be much more than just night sweats and that the pain through the imagery is what explained it to me.