The Man With The Night Sweats is one of a series of poems by Gunn released during the AIDS

epidemic. One reading of the poem suggests a dramatic monologue about a persona with AIDS, their
life before the illness and the way he became ill - an elegy to the loss of his previous passionate
experiences and the faith he had in his body. The contrast between the earlier thriving and the later
morose diction creates an antithesis between the youthful physicality of the past body and the
weakness and mortality of the present body. However, there is a more universal message about the
inevitably of death and the helplessness of physical decay, and it could be argued that the
prevalence amongst critical interpretations of it being seen solely as poem about AIDS could reflect
the heightened focus on the disease at the time. There is also a debate to be had on whether on
some level there a sense of internalised guilt from Gunn’s persona that the past open sexuality and
trust in his body manifested itself in a hedonism that resulted in his present consequences.
Furthermore, it is unclear whether Gunn’s persona can fully sacrifice the link his identity has with his
body.

There is an absence of medical and scientific vocabulary in this poem that differentiates it from the
conventional narrative on AIDS. The diction is culturally and historically universal, making it more of
a lyrical mediation which conveys emotional pain. This deviation from typical language used could
mirror the need for the persona to find a new way of thinking. There is a wider sense of search for
true self – an understanding develops that this can no longer be based on his physical body and the
control of the external his bodily interactions allowed him.

Gunn begins the poem by stating that “I wake up cold, I who…” -, with the repetition of the first-
person personal pronoun “I” suggesting the persona’s dissociation from their state of illness, that
waking up this way is a constant shock to the notion they have of their identity. The imagery of
coldness – loneliness, weakness and isolation, creates an antithesis to their “dreams of heat”. These
could represent their longing for their past experiences of this “heat” - joy, passion and sexuality
that they can now only dream of, whilst still acknowledging the underlying temporality of such a life,
as all dreams come to an end. The persona can now only “wake to their residue” – “sweat and a
clinging sheet". On the one hand, with night sweats being a classic symptom of the AIDS epidemic at
the time, this could inform a reading of these symbols as the negative consequences of illness that
the hedonism of his youth has left him with, reflecting the anxiety of AIDS being seen as a direct
result of excessive homosexual promiscuity in the gay community. The persona so deeply identifies
with his community’s suffering that his dreams are haunted. And yet there is no direct evidence that
the “heat” does necessarily suggest sex, or that this general state of weakness is a direct result of
previous sexual activity even if it had occurred - a more general reading of a contrast created
between the freedom of youthful health and physicality and the loss of it in old age could be equally
valid. Perhaps this reflects the heightened anxiety around AIDS at the time being so rampant that
there was always in assumption, particularly in the homosexual community that Gunn was a part of,
that someone had caught it. Furthermore, it could be argued that “sweat and a clinging sheet” is not
a natural association to have with cold, that these are sensations typically associated with heat,
which could suggest he similarly views this state of physical decay as an unnatural association with
an identity still firmly rooted in his past experience of vitality and passion.

According to the critic Richard’s definition of the parts of the metaphor, Gunn uses the “shield” as a
vehicle for the tenor of his body. Traditional more Aristotelian views of the metaphor believe that
the vehicle should be taken at face value and is only a means to an end in order to provide
significance for the tenor. As such, according to this view Gunn uses this metaphor to associate his
view of his body in the past with the faith and strength that a shield provides, to demonstrate his
confidence and bravado in being self-sufficient enough to enjoy physical experiences as a quest of
strength. However, Richard finds far more significance in the choice of vehicle and what in of itself
reveals about the tenor outside of the traditional meanings associated with it. As such, the choice of
a symbol of war for the vehicle suggests an underlying bad omen attached to his past freedom, that
on an unconscious level his passionate experiences are still an assault with potential for harm, a
negativity attached to the vehicle when viewing it in retrospect. Though in the persona’s youth
seeing every physical activity as a “challenge to the skin” suggested a sense of pride and bravado,
from his present perspective of illness the metaphor becomes tainted with ideas of disease and lack
of immunity (the HIV pathogen entering through the skin).

Perhaps even on some level a reader could infer a sense of blame Gunn’s persona has, which reflects
an internalisation of contemporary attitudes which used the prevalence of AIDS in the gay
community as fuel for homophobic rhetoric. Gunn ends the poem with the metaphor of an
“avalanche” to signify the inevitable progression of his illness. On the one hand, this could be to
suggest his powerlessness to halt the powerful physical degeneration of the disease. However, an
“avalanche” is a natural disaster, and one that is often triggered by manmade action, suggesting a
belief that AIDS is a natural and deserved consequence of his past actions. The persona “cannot but
be sorry” that the “heat” of his past sexual life has caused the “residue” of feverish dampness. In
fact, Gunn’s use of anaphora in the repetition of “as if” in the last stanza seems to be a mockery of
his attempts to resist the decline, there is a sense that he believes he deserves it.

The critic Hammer argues that Gunn’s persona undergoes “a symbolic sacrifice of formal mastery in
sympathy with the speaker’s suffering”. This reading could be supported by the form of the poem –
the first half describing his past contains quatrains that are more self-contained with full end
rhymes, a contrast to the second half which contains far more enjambment and half rhymes. The
poetic control has been lost, just as his disease means his former sexual self-mastery and control are
no longer possible. Defining himself through his body’s physicality could only ever be temporary, he
must now find for himself a new identity that does not rely on it. The critic Nowottny has pointed
out how in diction one must consider the change in meaning even of the same words throughout a
piece, and so this change in the metaphor of the shield and body could inform Hammer’s reading. By
the end of the poem, the vehicle of the shield has moved beyond the original tenor of the body:
though previously the shield was his body, now he attempts to “shield it”, suggesting a “sacrifice” as
Hammer puts it of his previous faith in his physicality.

Gunn’s persona believes that they “have to change the bed” – if changing the bed symbolises finding
this new identity, of letting go of the sweats that link him to the fervour and self-mastery of the past,
the obligation in the verb “have to” suggests this is unnatural to him and goes against his true
wishes. He is still “hugging my body to me”, his use of the possessive pronoun suggesting he is still
tying himself to the physicality of his body, the present participle emphasising this as a continous
attitude. It seems he cannot truly accept the isolation he now faces and still seeks the “hugging”, the
intimacy of his past.