For the Sleepwalkers

For the Sleepwalkers was a very cool poem that is full of great description. Each time Hirsch described what the sleepwalkers see, feel, touch; the reader feels like they are actually there, as a sleepwalker also. ­One of the main ideas in this poem is the idea of taking a leap of faith I believe. The first stanza is what makes me believe that is what Hirsch is trying to say, “Tonight I want to say something wonderful for the sleepwalkers who have so much faith in their legs, so much faith in the invisible.” When taking a leap of faith one doesn’t always know what they are getting into, but the only thing they can do is trust that their legs are strong enough to hold them up even if it doesn’t all workout. In the second stanza, the poet talks about ways of getting out into the darkness, the world of the sleepwalkers. He talks about the window and the seamless mirror and then the sleepwalker chooses the door, and that seems to show that everyone when talking their own leap of faith needs to choose their own way to the place they want to go. Also, the thing about a door that is different from a window or a mirror is a door somewhat represents something more of a challenge, because he uses the word gaping when he describes the door. When I think of a person who sat and gape I think of a person sitting in wonder, and that’s what I think the door represents; a whole new wonder waiting to be explored by the sleep walker. The last line I want to discuss is the line that stood out to me the most. “That’s why I want to say something astonishing like: Our hearts are leaving our bodies.” To me this describes the purpose of the sleepwalker. They take that leap of faith and then let their heart do what it has always wanted to do in the darkness that they never could do in the light. In the darkness the sleepwalkers’ heart is free to do what it has always wanted to do; it is their other life, the one they have always wanted to live. A sleepwalker is the part of a person who had the courage to take that leap of faith… to the ultimate dream.