Poem - "The Sleepers" by Sylvia Plath

"The Sleepers" 
by Sylvia Plath


No map traces the street


Where those two sleepers are.

We have lost track of it.

They lie as if under water

In a blue, unchanging light,

The French window ajar



Curtained with yellow lace.

Through the narrow crack

Odors of wet earth rise.

The snail leaves a silver track;

Dark thickets hedge the house.

We take a backward look.



Among petals pale as death

And leaves steadfast in shape

They sleep on, mouth to mouth.

A white mist is going up.

The small green nostrils breathe,

And they turn in their sleep.



Ousted from that warm bed

We are a dream they dream.

Their eyelids keep up the shade.

No harm can come to them.

We cast our skins and slide