Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -“He sleeps in sunlight…”-Who is the person referred to here? Where does he sleep how? What does the word ‘sleep’ indicate in this poem? Or, Is he really sleeping peacefully?
The person referred to here is the young | soldier depicted in Rimbaud’s poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.
He sleeps in the warm, green, sunbathed dense bushes of the small valley under the open sky. The young soldier is lying with his mouth open. His head is rested on a pillow made of fern and his feet are among the wild flowers of the valley. Though his face looks pale, there is an innocent, pure and gentle smile on his lips, similar to that of an infant. One of his hands is placed upon his chest.
The word ‘sleep’ indicates ‘eternal rest’ in this poem. The young soldier is shot dead by twin bullets. Neither the incessant buzzing of the insects nor the bright daylight can wake him up. The elements of Nature fail to revive the soldier that is bring him back to life. The soldier is sleeping peacefully in the sense that he is in the land of ultimate peace far away from the sufferings of a soldier’s life. The horrors and brutality of warfare cannot disturb his rest.