Sleeping in the Forest Guiding Questions I thought the earth

remembered me, shetook me back so tenderly, arranging

her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens[1] and seeds. I slept

as never before, a stone

on the riverbed, nothing

between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated

light as moths among the branches

of the perfect trees. All night

I heard the small kingdoms breathing

around me, the insects, and the birdswho do their work in the darkness. All night

I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling[2]

with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

Lines 9–11: What figurative language is used in these lines? Explain its effect on the meaning of the poem?