Rachel Field Poem – If Once You have Slept on an Island

If Once You Have Slept on an Island

In this poem, the poet, Rachel Layman Field, describes how a stay in an island affects the inhabitant.
In course of living in the island, the appearance changes little and the name remains the same. In the island, the person can go about his daily life sauntering in the street, doing shopping or relaxing at home spending time in sewing or in similar hobbies.
The inhabitant can’t keep his eyes off the vast blue mass of water in the sea. The sight of the hovering sea gulls is too enchanting to ignore. The passing ships whistle, and the light house bells ring. The tides’ roar buzz the ears even during sleep. As the inhabitant chats with his neighbor, or sits idly near the fire place, the sight and sound of the sea linger in his mind. In course of time these get etched in his mind.
As a result, one becomes a different person without discerning the slow changes that have come about in him. The island casts a spell over the inhabitant which he can’t shake off.

Note .. It is obvious that a day’s stay in the island can’t bring about such drastic changes in an inhabitant there. Such assertion is a hyperbole. What the poet has in mind is the bewitching beauty, and the serenity of the island that profoundly influences the mind of a visitor to the place.  , The leisurely pace of life and the sight of the blue waters of the sea influence the mind of a person so greatly that he tends to forget his earlier life. The new consciousness imbues his inner self without he realizing that he had a distinct past.
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