Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -“Asleep; stretched in the heavy undergrowth,”-In what sense is the person asleep? How do you know? Describe the bed where the person is lying asleep.
The person in Arthur Rimbaud’s poem ‘Aleep in the Valley’ is asleep in the sense that he is in death’s eternal sleep.
The poem opens with a picturesque description of a small mountain valley through which a slow stream flows leaving long strips of silver on the bright grass. The green valley is sunbathed. Then, the readers find that a young soldier is lying asleep in absolute peace in the dense bushes of the valley. But the final line of the poem reveals that there are two red holes at one side of his body. The ‘two red holes’ signify twin bullet wounds and the seemingly sleeping soldier is now understood to have gone into the realm of never-ending sleep. The soldier’s body is extended in the thick bushes. His bed is warm, green hued and sun-drenched. His feet are covered with the flowers of the ‘hollow’ and he rests his head on a pillow made of fern.