"The Man with Night Sweats" appears in Thom Gunn's 1992 collection of the same title. Often acclaimed as his masterpiece, The Man with Night Sweats reflects on the HIV/AIDS epidemic (at a time when the disease was effectively untreatable) and elegizes its victims, including a number of the poet's loved ones. This title poem, a dramatic monologue, takes the perspective of a man suffering from night sweats as a result of acute HIV infection. The speaker reflects wistfully on his youth, the thrilling "risk[s]" he took, and his feelings of invulnerability before he became ill. Now terribly vulnerable, he confronts his own approaching death and the tragedy of mortality in general.

• Read the full text of “The Man with Night Sweats”

• “The Man with Night Sweats” Summary

• “The Man with Night Sweats” Themes

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    Illness, Vulnerability, and Mortality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-24

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Man with Night Sweats”

  • Lines 1-4

    I wake up ...
    ... a clinging sheet.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-6

    My flesh was ...
    ... gashed, it healed.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-12

    I grew as ...
    ... to the skin.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-16

    I cannot but ...
    ... reduced and wrecked.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-22

    I have to ...
    ... go through me,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-24

    As if hands ...
    ... an avalanche off.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Man with Night Sweats” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “I who / Prospered through dreams of heat”
    • Lines 5-6: “My flesh was its own shield: / Where it was gashed, it healed.”
    • Lines 11-12: “A world of wonders in / Each challenge to the skin.”
    • Line 14: “The given shield was cracked,”
    • Line 24: “To hold an avalanche off.”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 21-24: “As if to shield it from / The pains that will go through me, / As if hands were enough / To hold an avalanche off.”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “wake,” “cold”
    • Line 5: “flesh,” “shield”
    • Line 6: “gashed,” “healed”
    • Line 10: “risk,” “robust”
    • Line 11: “world,” “wonders”
    • Line 13: “but be”
    • Line 14: “cracked”
    • Line 15: “My mind,” “reduced,” “hurry”
    • Line 16: “reduced,” “wrecked”
    • Line 17: “bed”
    • Line 18: “But,” “myself instead”
    • Line 19: “Stopped upright”
    • Line 23: “hands,” “enough”
    • Line 24: “hold,” “avalanche”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “who / Prospered”
    • Lines 2-3: “ heat / Wake”
    • Lines 7-8: “explored / The”
    • Lines 8-9: “trust / Even”
    • Lines 9-10: “adored / The”
    • Lines 11-12: “in / Each”
    • Lines 13-14: “sorry / The”
    • Lines 18-19: “instead / Stopped”
    • Lines 19-20: “am / Hugging”
    • Lines 20-21: “me / As”
    • Lines 21-22: “from / The”
    • Lines 23-24: “enough / To”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “I wake,” “I”
    • Line 3: “Wake”
    • Line 5: “My flesh,” “shield”
    • Line 7: “I,” “I”
    • Line 8: “I”
    • Line 9: “I”
    • Line 13: “I”
    • Line 14: “shield”
    • Line 15: “My,” “reduced”
    • Line 16: “My flesh reduced”
    • Line 17: “I”
    • Line 20: “me”
    • Line 21: “As if,” “shield”
    • Line 22: “me”
    • Line 23: “As if”

• “The Man with Night Sweats” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Prospered
  • Residue
  • Gashed
  • Robust
  • Cannot but be
  • Reduced
  • Avalanche
  • (Location in poem: Line 2: “Prospered through dreams of heat”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Man with Night Sweats”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Man with Night Sweats” Speaker

• “The Man with Night Sweats” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Man with Night Sweats”

• More “The Man with Night Sweats” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poet's Life and Work — Read a biography of Thom Gunn at the Poetry Foundation.

    • More on Gunn's Life — A biography of Gunn at Poets.org.

    • A Discussion of Gunn and Bishop — Watch author Colm Tóibín discussing the poetry of Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Bishop.

    • Gunn: A Retrospective — Read Gunn's 2004 obituary in the New York Times. (Registration required.)

    • The San Francisco Renaissance — Read an introduction to the San Francisco Renaissance, the post-WWII poetic movement with which Gunn is sometimes associated.

    • An HIV/AIDS Timeline — Historical context for the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., courtesy of HIV.gov.

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