Nightbreak By Thomas Moore Summary

After being torn away from my life by the influenza, I came to relate with this poem by Thomas Moore. As he describes, even though I am sad now, the memories of my past manage to lift me up from the darkness surrounding me. The poet canvasses two periods, past and present, and two kinds of memories, childhood and present. The first stanza begins with memories of childhood, and the last ends with present circumstances, with the theme of death present throughout. Death is first presented here in shining eyes that are now "dimm’d and gone" and then it is presented as "cheerful hearts now broken" (Moore 9-10). What amazes me is that Moore is able to convey the fact that once you hit a certain point in your life, you have to become more mature and independent even when the times are rough. My battles are a direct example of that; when the influenza struck, there was no one to take care of me. Instead, I had to take charge of my own life and the path I would take. The loss of …show more content…
The slumber's chain that binds is a metaphor for psychological bonds of emotional chains holding us back. A certain aspect of the poem is very familiar – the reflective feelings that come while one lies in bed before falling asleep. Nighttime has an almost mystical ability to both soothe and haunt; the speaker here is succumbing to the lonesomeness of the dark. The speaker has had a very happy life, full of friends and laughter and love; we can infer this from the images given in the first verse. And now he lies alone at night, with nothing but memories to keep him company. The slumber's chain that binds him is a metaphor for the psychological bonds of emotional chains holding him hostage. His life, which was once so much like a smartly-decorated banquet, is now fading like mine. And in this state the light of other memories, though painful when compared to the present, is soothing in