Insomnia- Elizabeth Bishop

The moon in the bureau mirror

looks out a million miles

(and perhaps with pride, at herself,

but she never, never smiles)

far and away beyond sleep, or

perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.

By the Universe deserted,

she'd tell it to go to hell,

and she'd find a body of water,

or a mirror, on which to dwell.

So wrap up care in a cobweb

and drop it down the well

into that world inverted

where left is always right,

where the shadows are really the body,

where we stay awake all night,

where the heavens are shallow as the sea

is now deep, and you love me. 

commentary 

The reader is taken to another world, much like a dream it elicits a feeling that one does not have to understand on an intellectual level to be affected by. In this world time is also suspended, mimicking the feeling of being in limbo that often occurs with a bout of insomnia. The second stanza closes with, “and drop it down the well” (line 12). Here we are taken down a rabbit hole of sorts, and in this strange place everything is “inverted.” I found it interest to learn that at the time Bishop wrote the poem it was quite common for people to refer to lesbians as “inverts.”” The first stanza speaks of the inability to sleep, hence the title. It seems as though something is keeping her awake, and the second stanza speaks of seeking refuge, which makes me think that perhaps it is something sinister preventing sleep. The refuges mentioned in lines 9 and 10 are a body of water and a mirror. In line 15 Bishop writes, “where the shadows are really the body,” which has an interesting connection to the moon. The moon reflects the shadow of the sun’s light, so one could interpret the moon as an inversion itself. The poem up until this point talks about the moon looking at herself (in the bureau mirror in line 1 and dwelling on the mirror or water in lines 9-10). If you follow this line of thinking then the moon is a reflection of the sun, and reflections are always a distorted image of what is “real.