Sick Room explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Death and Mortality

  Death is personified as a lover lying beside the woman, emphasizing the closeness of mortality

Characters to notice

• Unknown

  The observer or speaker describing the scene

• Death

  One of the two lovers lying with the woman

Key passages

• “How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lovers⁠— Life and Death, And all three covered with a sheet of pain.”

  The sick room is profoundly still, where a mute woman rests in bed flanked by Life and Death, all enveloped in suffering.

  The poem personifies Life and Death as lovers sharing the woman's bed of pain.