The Man With Night Sweats: Analysis of a Poem

 In this post, I am going to analyse the Thom Gunn poem, Man With Night Sweats. 

Thom Gunn by Ander Gunn 1992

The Man with Night Sweats was published in 1992, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The rise of HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s and early 1990s was shocking at the time and was largely covered up through the 1980s the silent spread of disease was known by health professionals and the gay comunity. 'In the early 1980s, reports of a strange new disease began emerging from the United States. It was picked up in the British gay press – Gay News ran a story in November 1981 under the headline “Gay cancer or mass media scare?” – but relatively few people noticed.' (Weston, 2021).  Gunn wrote this poem as he was watching his friends suffering and dying; 'I had assumed that I would age with all my friends growing old around me, dying off very gradually one by one. And here was a plague that cut them off so early.' (Spacey, 2023) The poem here is expressing the pain of his friends through his words

The poem is in the form of a Caelica '(Latin for Heavenly) - short octets, alternately rhyming, ended by a rhyming couplet.' (Spacey, 2023).  This form of poetry comes from a poem by Greville (published 1633) which, ' in his sinewy and demanding verse include philosophical treatises and unperformed melodramas (Alaham and Mustapha) that have a somber Calvinist tone, presenting man as a vulnerable creature inhabiting a world of unresolved contradictions' (Encylopedia Brittanica, 2025).  Gunn used this form as in his poem the tension is between his body that he once knew and trusted to his body now which is weak and does not protect him.  

In the second quatrain (Lines 2 and 3)

'The body I could trust   

Even while I adored'

This is his show of strength and goes on to suggest that as he felt immortal and he trusted in his own body he could take risks.  Then later in the third quatrain (Line 2, 3 and 4)

'The given shield was cracked,

My mind reduced to hurry,   

My flesh reduced and wrecked.'

His body is cracked, this extends to his mind not functioning as it should, his flesh now 'reduced and wrecked', this is destruction of not just his body but all that he knows, like Samson his strength has been taken and he now cannot live. Here, the use of enjambment makes the pace quite fast as you are forced to continue on as the line runs through to the next line. In the final (fourth) rhyming couplet (lines 1 & 2) the reader is breathless  at the end of the poem, the despair as he can no longer protect himself from an 'avalanche', this will suffocate, crush and kill him and an avalanche is cold harsh, it suggests isolation. Many who died of AIDS were in isolation, alone in death. 

'As if hands were enough   

To hold an avalanche off.'

In the 1980s AIDS patients were treated very badly in British and possibly worse in American hospitals, 'AIDS patients are locked in hospital rooms, denied care and treated like pariahs in society. Because of the lack of education around AIDS' (Mussen, 2021).  In the 1980s there were still laws against homesexual realtionships and literature such as Section 28*.  

This poem means a lot to me and discovering Gunn was one of the pleasures of my life, this poem makes my heart ache as I read it.  In terms of the form and literary devices, I looked at enjambment as I was using run on sentences and polysyndeton, as I was talking about the rhythm and pace in the work of Wallace and my own work, which is linked here to how enjambment is used. There is so much more that can be explored here but for this short post, it has been helpful to meditate on the meaning, form and just one of the literary devices used. 

References

Austin, A. (2022). LitCharts. [online] LitCharts. Available at: https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/thom-gunn/the-man-with-night-sweats [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Brewster, G. (2025). A Brief timeline of LGBTQ+ laws in the UK | Llanelli LGBTQ+ Support Group. [online] Llanelli LGBTQ+ Support Group. Available at: https://lgbtqplus.org.uk/heritage/a-brief-timeline-of-lgbtq-laws-in-the-uk/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Encylopedia Brittanica (2025). Caelica | poem by Greville | Britannica. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Caelica [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Foundation, P. (2021). The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn. [online] Poetry Foundation. Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47956/the-man-with-night-sweats [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Mussen, M. (2021). ‘It angered me’: Nurse shares what life was like on the wards during the 80s AIDS crisis. [online] The Tab. Available at: https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2021/01/26/it-angered-me-nurse-shares-what-life-was-like-on-the-wards-during-the-80s-aids-crisis-191978 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Spacey, A. (2023). Analysis of the Poem ‘The Man With Night Sweats’ by Thom Gunn. [online] Owlcation. Available at: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Man-With-Night-Sweats-by-Thom-Gunn [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Weston, J. (2021). Aids: the epidemic that changed Britain. [online] HistoryExtra. Available at: https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/aids-hiv-epidemic-changed-britain-how/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Footnotes

*1988 – Section 28

Section 28 of the Local Government Act was introduced by the Conservative Government lead by Margaret Thatcher, a step back in the fight for equality. Section 28 made it illegal for local authorities from ‘promoting homosexuality’ or ‘pretended family relationships’. It also banned Councils from funding educational materials and projects that were perceived to ‘promote homosexuality’. By preventing the discussion of LGBT issues, it stopped pupils and young people from getting the support they needed. In 2003 Section 28 was repealed but it was not until 2009 that the former prime minister David Cameron apologised for the legislation. (Brewster, 2025) 

Chapbook: Chapter One - Second Draft & Mock Up

 After completing a Second Draft of Chapter One I began looking at the pages in Blurb and mocked up the first chapter. I chose a Trade Book of the smallest size 13x20cm.  The font is Alegreya and the spacing is 1.5.  I chose some images to see how this looked.  As can be seen here this is around 15 pages as I left pages free for the book title and contents. 

 

Website Evaluation & Comparison: Pipilotti Rist and Hermann Nitsch

In this post I will be comparing the websites of Pippi Lotti Rist and Hermann Nitsch.  I will be looking at the design, layout, colour palette, typography and also technical aspects such as navigation, ease of use, presentation of galleries and how easy it is to use the site and understand the artist.

Pipilotti Rist

I will begin with Pipilotti Rist website, a video and perfomance artist. On the homepage there is a full page of video stills that move through different images.  The artist name is in the left hand corner in large letters and is static, there is no header or footer and there is no navigation bar...I clicked hopefully on the screen but that led nowhere so I found one button that said 'contact' at the bottom of the screen and this has a small menu.

I clicked on 'Galleries' in the contact button and this just has a list of galleries where the artist work is shown. The next menu item is copyright and images and this just list copyright for her work, then there is a list of distributers.  This is all there is, this is now the shortest evaluation of any website I have ever done.  There is no work to look at here and there is not even links to guide you to other works, there is no copyright notice on the site with a date.  A very very disappointing experience.

Hermann Nitsch

The second site I am looking at is Hermann Nitsch another performance artist (Vienna Actionist).  Hermann Nitsch's Homepage is bold black writing in the header with the artists name in sans serif font, in large letters.  Underneath this is had the 'Das Origien Mysterien Theater' again in in big bold black sans serif letters. Below this is the navigation bar.  The whole page has a white clean background.  Underneath teh navigation bar is a gallery grid 2 x 6 with different areas these are: Biography, Painting Actions, Actions, Music, Events and Publications.  In the footer there is a privacy and legal notice, these are well writtien and clear notice which outline the scope of privacy and legal requirements in relation to Nitsch's site and work.  There is no copyright date to the website on the footer or on the homepage that I can find. The homepage is bold and clear and clearly the links to all ages work well.

The site can be viewed in either German or English and it is easy to switch between the two as the language in in the navigation bar and in the footer.  I clicked first into the Action Paimtings box and this is the page I was led to 

his has a very long essay on these paintings and their origins with the three images at the top as shown here. There is also am additional menu and regsiter of action painting is lierally a register of all teh action paintings and where they have been carried out as a record.  Then selected painting actions leads to another page with these selected works which you can click into as seen below.  you can also click through the gallery here.

There is many other pages that are too many to list here but one of these is graphic works and this again has three images and an essay on these works. 

The pages are very consistent, there is excellent navigation through the pages and there is so much work to see throughout with many galleries . In the Orgies Mysteries Theatre the page is laid out the same with three images and an essay 

This also has a sub-navigation menu with again register of actions, selected action and 6-Day Play - the mysteries threatre are longer more intense works involving many performers as can be seen in the more detailed image below.

The next page that I looked at was biography - again the same consistent layout with three images at the top of the page and then the writing underneath. This is a long life in chronological order, it is something you would read with a large cup of coffee!  There is much to read throughout this site and if you are really interested in the artists there is a wealth of information.  I have been scrolling down to the bottom of each page and I realised there is no back to top button - this would actually have been really useful on this site. 

There is much to learn on this site but what is missing is perhaps videos of these events and performances, I checked on YouTube and there are videos of some of these events and they could have been included.  Overall this site is consistent, with good navigation and back buttons, it is available in two languages and does give a good account of the artist (now deceased Hermann Nitsch 1938-2022).  

Comparison

The two websites I looked at are so wildly different in design that this comparision is a little challenging. Pipilotti Rist site had essently nothing on it at all, it listed galleries where here work could be viewed and copyrights but nothing else.  I could see no work, there was no links to work and overall is basically completely unhelpful as a site to know and understand the artist and her work.  Hermann Nitsch, on the other hand, was full of informtion there were many pages all full of different informaton about different areas if his work and.  There are long essays and explanations on each page and a very full and lengthy biography, there is a list of publications and contacts include a link to the Nitsch Foundation Website, this was also great and contained loads of additional information and work I could view.  I really don't think there is a comparison here as such as the Rist site just does not contain anything whereas Nitsch attempts to contain everything, perhaps that is very much represents teh artist as he was fairly uncontainable! The website here is well presented, clean, easy to navigate with the exception of not including back to top buttons on long written pages.  Some may not enjoy the long written pieces, in this age of people who do not read and want instant information, however I like the slow read and know that I will learn something important from this. 

Chapbook: Chapter One - First Draft

 I have written the first draft of my first chapter, this is the set-up to my story.  The main character George Fox has had a fall...

First Draft: Chapter One - Awakening

The action here takes place in George's home - I think I may add more details about location as perhaps he needs to located in time and space further, I may need this for later in the story. I will think about any additions and add them prior to writing the next chapter. 

George intends to escape to Canada, I chose Canada as I went there as a child and it really made a lasting impression on me and I can imagine the places I went still really very clearly. 

I will continue this story and keep adding drafts, over the next two weeks....

Chapbook: Research Yes Man by Danny Wallace

 

Yes Man (2006) By Danny Wallace

Before I launch into writing my own story (title yet to be decided) I will analyse the writing of Danny Wallace's Yes Man (2006).  This story is about a man who has broken up with his girlfriend and then fallen into a rut and just keeps saying no until he meets a man on a bus who suggests that he say Yes more.  After this, the story is about his adventures in saying Yes to everything.  It begins with a day and ends up being for a year. The book is about that year. I chose this to look at as the book is humourous, contains well-told stories of his adventures and includes quite a bit of dialogue which in my timed writing I realised I had used much more than I had in other writing. Teen Ink states of the stories that; 'the only thing that bothered me about the book is its lack of fluidity. It isn’t that the writing wasn’t good, it’s more that the plot consisted of disconnected episodes. Although the things that Wallace does are fun and interesting, they don’t really make up a story as a whole. They are a series of smaller stories that are loosely tied together.' (Kimbel Sannit, 2009).  I tend to disagree with this only as I think that life is many small stories loosely tied together that end being your life! Wallace himself who speaks in first person also explains this: 

'Now, conventional storytelling dictates that, if I were doing this properly, I would now tell you everything that happened over the course of the next few days, in the correct order and one at a time.  I'd tell you what happened on Monday (which was great) and then on Tuesday (similarly great) and then I'd tell you what happened on Wednesday (which I really rather enjoyed)

But this isn't a conventional story.  And if we were down the pub, you and me, and you asked me to tell you what happened next, it would take all my concentration and willpower not to skip straight to this next bit, tell you it, and grab your shoulders, and shake you, and say 'so what d'you think of that?!' I know I shouldn't do it, but believe me, I've told the story in pubs to friends who bear more than a passing resemblance to you since this happened, and this is the way a story like this should be told.  So I want to skip forward slightly. Only to the end of my week of Yes.  To Friday.  Because what happened on Friday was incredible.' (Wallace, 2008:43)

This extract gives a good sense of the writing of Wallace, he write in a very British style and using long sentences or run -on sentences.  These can give more detail but they also affect the pace of the writing so the reader feels they are moving along more quickly through the words. The style is also conversational, very informal as if he is a bloke you do know from the pub.  Wallace himself has stated: 'I like to test my stuff out on actual people. I write in quite a conversational manner, and I always thought of those books as the way I would tell you the story if I was in the pub with you.' (Beadle, 2015)

The use of the long sentence also can engage a reader more in the story, drawing the reader in like a secret, it uses anticipation as the end is not certain.  Farnsworth argues that; 'the short sentence can become boring. Breathtakingly boring. It can become repetitive. Monotonous. Monotone. Routine. And dry. Which frustrates the reader.' (Farnworth, 2017).  The reason that Wallace's long sentences are interesting is that they are not made up of a lot of 'ands' or coupling clauses they are called polysyndeton (a literary device) - there are some of these but there is a run on pace that is very conversational and engaging, I want to know what happened on Friday with all heat when he gets to the end of this. 

I am only looking here at a small extract and the style but this reminds me of the kind of pace I want to build up and makes me consider further how I will be engaging the reader if I have taken a God's eye view, I think that is perhaps why I have used more dialogue in my timed writing as this is immediate and engaging. 

I will be looking at further writing and literary devices in this project but for now I will go back and explore the possibilities of my own story and see what develops....

References

Beadle, C. (2015). Danny Wallace: Ten Years of Yes Man. [online] British Comedy Guide. Available at: https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/danny_wallace_ten_years_of_yes_man/ [Accessed 8 Feb. 2025].

Farnworth, D. (2017). How to Write a Brilliant Long Sentence. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@demianfarnworth/how-to-write-a-brilliant-long-sentence-5f006e85db3#id [Accessed 8 Feb. 2025].

Kimbel Sannit, A. (2009). Yes Man by Danny Wallace | Teen Ink. [online] Teenink.com. Available at: https://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/article/157793/Yes-Man-by-Danny-Wallace/ [Accessed 8 Feb. 2025].

Wallace, D. (2008) Yes Man, Random House, Ebury Press, Berkshire UK.

Further Research; Pippi Lotti Rist - Wicked Game

 This video of Pippi Lotti Rist's version of 'Wicked Game' I chose as it is haunting and violent and the screaming in pain is something that we all feel like sometimes...

Pippi Lotti Rist (1996/7) Ever is Over All (Wicked Game)

Pippi Lotti Rist's work excited me since I lay on the floor in the Hayward and was engulfed in a sensual, feminine and mildly erotic video that filled the ceiling.  Jessica Lack writes of Rist that her work is; 'Hilarious and anarchic, Rist's art swings erratically from eroticism to violence, fantasy to fear, constantly pushing the limits of what is possible.' (Lack, 2008) I also felt this with her work, when looking into videos that are of eyes in a handbag or selfless in a Bath of Lava (1994) I am excited that these things have been brought into existence.  While I have been pondering the making of my own work 'silent scream' which is my reaction to the inauguration of Trump, I think about the violence in my heart as I can see that these disturbing events are painful for the world and my scream will be silent because pain often is writhing within.  In Wicked Game, Rist lets it all out, and Art Forum suggests that; '[the work] suggests an ambivalence about using sex or violence to satisfy our need for communion: As the Isaak song says, maybe we “don’t want to fall in love,” and the destruction of property, while an expression of agency and refusal, is here neither communal nor strategic.' (Ryan, 2017) This idea that it is not communal and there is no strategy, wanton destruction is more like a need, an expression and that is what I am really aiming for in my own work. I need to do something, it may have no effect on anything but it will be satisfying. 

Another crucial reason for discussing the work of Rist is that is essentially, unashamedly feminine.  The works are all woman; 'Ever Is Over All’s slow-mo car-smashing is paired with images of large, dewy flowers, suggesting innocence and serving as emblems of femininity. That’s the Pipilotti Rist artistic universe, right there: transgression doesn’t exist, or is suspended. The law of this land is feminine, and it is non-judgmental.' (Davis, 2016) It Rist's world and it is always a pleasure to visit.  All her work is Performance and Rist was strongly influenced by the work of Yoko Ono in her early days  Not all her work is praised and her piece 'Blood Clip' which 'featured copious flows of menstrual blood (simulated) [...] made some viewers think that she was taking feminism too far"' (The Art Story, 2008) Rist is not the first Performance artist to use menstrual blood, Carolee Schneemann made paintings with her menstrual blood, it is funny how the male-dominated art world still finds menstrual blood still a bit icky. I suspect that menstrual blood, which is pure woman, can seem to them hostile and offensive. Yet men can use their own blood, consider Marc Quinn's Blood Head (Self, 2006) people found it fascinating, and shocking but he was still revered.  

Pippi Lotti Rist is  an artist who is brave, bold, entirely singular and I am hoping to continue to enjoy her work, and be moved by her spirit when creating my own work.

References

Davis, B. (2016). Pipilotti Rist’s New Museum Show is Absolutely Shameless | Artnet News. [online] Artnet News. Available at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pipilotti-rist-pixel-forest-new-museum-722027 [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].

Lack, J. (2008). Artist of the Week No 3: Pipilotti Rist. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/aug/20/art [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].

Ryan, T.R. (2017). Pipilotti Rist. [online] Artforum. Available at: https://www.artforum.com/events/pipilotti-rist-16-226924/ [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].

The Art Story (2008). Pipilotti Rist Paintings, Bio, Ideas. [online] The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/rist-pipilotti/.

Digital Workshop: Clipchamp

 I collected some clips from Pexels, these clips were a dance for an art performance to practice for my project.

I then opened Clipchamp and I clicked on 'Create a new video'

I then clicked on 'import media' in the left hand top corner of my dashboard. I imported all my clips for my video

My next step was to add the title and my name at the beginning of the film.  I clicked on the 'T' icon in the left hand tools menu and then I chose my title text which was 'Tidal', I then dragged this into my timeline, I clicked on this and then went to the right hand menu and added my title, I changed the font to Bricolage Grotesque.  I then used the slider to enlarge the text .  I then dragged the section backwards on teh timeline so that it was 3 seconds long.  I then repeated this process for my name. 

I then started to drag my clips from 'my media' section on the left hand side into my timeline. 

I used the cutting tool above timeline to cut my clips to the length I wanted and then just moved through each clip to the rough cuts that I wanted.

I then added a voice over with the beginning of my narrative, I chose Arabella Multilingual, I then typed in my text ensuring I had left the right gaps for the words.  I then went to advanced and changed the pace to slower to around 0.7 x  and then I changed the vocal pitch to low

I then added music from the free music archive, this was free to use and use on Youtube videos.  This is an mp4 and I upoloaded to 'my media' in clipchamp.  I then just added the remainder of the clips and voice and I used the tranistion tool on the left hand tools menu to add cross fades between each clip.

Lastly I added the credits so I clicked on 'T' icon and chose the credits roll, I then changed the font to the same font as my titles Bricolage Grotesque.  I then faded the music out at the end, checked the video and then exported this to my computer and I also added to YouTube and saved to my drive. 

Reflection

I enjoyed making this short video practice, the cuts and transitions are really smooth and the music and words remind me of a kind if 70s performance piece, I could imagine this on a stage and the words being expressed through dance!  Very useful and fun.