Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Robert Creeley’s "Terribly Strange Bed," the poet captures an unsettling memory, invoking the eerie stillness of childhood fears and the nightmarish vulnerability often felt in sleep. The poem centers on a bed surrounded by "portraits on the wall" with "stiff, painted eyes," which seem to come alive in the darkness, rolling around as if to observe or even threaten the sleeper. These "eyes" create an unnerving atmosphere, transforming the quiet room into a haunted space where inanimate faces appear watchful and menacing. This simple yet profound imagery embodies a child's anxiety about the uncanny, where ordinary objects assume a frightening presence once the comforting light of day fades away.

Creeley’s language reinforces the sense of unease and isolation. Words like "stiff," "dark," and "kill" suggest the rigidity of fear and the starkness of danger, even though it is ultimately imaginary. The repetitive, almost chant-like quality of the lines mirrors the cyclical, inescapable nature of fear in a child's mind, where every night the same shadows and shapes seem to menace the same bed. By saying the figures were "about to kill me / only in sleep safe," Creeley hints at the paradox of vulnerability and safety in sleep—a state where we surrender control and become defenseless, yet paradoxically feel shielded from real harm within the confines of a dream.

The structure of the poem, with its enjambed lines and lack of punctuation, adds to the disoriented, dreamlike quality of the memory. This form allows the lines to flow into one another, much like how fearful thoughts flow and spiral when one lies awake in bed, unable to shake the feeling of being watched. It’s as though the lines mimic the blurred boundary between reality and imagination, a state where the conscious and unconscious intermingle in the quietude of night.

The poem ultimately speaks to the haunting power of memory and imagination, how they can linger and affect us even as adults. By conjuring an image of fear rooted in something as mundane as portraits on a wall, Creeley transforms a simple bedroom into a theater of psychological unease, reminding us of the enduring impact of those "terribly strange" moments that first taught us the shape of fear.

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