Critical Analysis and Interpretation of “The Man with Night Sweats” by Thom Gunn.
Thom Gunn has in an interview described himself as a cold poet and the scene in “The Man with Night Sweats” is cold, physically and also in the situation the persona finds himself in where he learns the cold truth that his body may not be as invincible as he thought it was.
The persona is suffering from AIDS and as it can be seen, his body is slowly deteriorating. He “wake[s] up cold” in the middle of the night, unable to contain the pain and restlessness - “Night Sweats” - and begins remembering his past when “[he]…prospered through dreams of heat”, implying a past of promiscuity and how now he “Wake[s] to their residue/ Sweat, and a clinging sheet.” His body is becoming just a “residue”, of what it was before, or what he thought his body used to be. “My flesh was it’s own shield/ Where it gashed, it healed.” and for this reason, he failed to take care of it because he believed it could take care of itself regardless and so he became too careless with how he treated it.
