The Pains of Sleep
Ere on my bed my limbs I lay,It hath not been my use to prayWith moving lips or bended knees;But silently, by slow degrees,My spirit I to Love compose,In humble trust mine eye-lids close,With reverential resignation,No wish conceived, no thought exprest,Only a sense of supplication;A sense o'er all my soul imprestThat I am weak, yet not unblest,Since in me, round me, everywhereEternal Strength and Wisdom are.
But yester-night I pray'd aloudIn anguish and in agony,Up-starting from the fiendish crowdOf shapes and thoughts that tortured me:A lurid light, a trampling throng,Sense of intolerable wrong,And whom I scorned, those only strong!Thirst of revenge, the powerless willStill baffled, and yet burning still!Desire with loathing strangely mixedOn wild or hateful objects fixed.Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!And shame and terror over all!Deeds to be hid which were not hid,Which all confused I could not knowWhether I suffered, or I did:For all seem'd guilt, remorse or woe,My own or others still the sameLife-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame!
So two nights passed: the night's dismaySaddened and stunned the coming day.Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to meDistemper's worst calamity.The third night, when my own loud screamHad waked me from the fiendish dream,O'ercome with sufferings strange and wild,I wept as I had been a child;And having thus by tears subduedMy anguish to a milder mood,Such punishments, I said, were dueTo natures deepliest stained with sin:For aye entempesting anewThe unfathomable hell withinThe horror of their deeds to view,To know and loathe, yet wish and do!Such griefs with such men well agree,But wherefore, wherefore fall on me?To be beloved is all I need,And whom I love, I love indeed.
Words in this poem
- resignation n.
- The act of resigning or giving up, as a claim, possession, office, or the like; surrender; as, the resignation of a crown or comission. [F. résignation. See Resign.]
- imprest v. t.
- To advance on loan. Burke. [Pref. im- + prest: cf. It. imprestare. See Prest, n.]
- unblest a.
- Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. [Pref. un- not + blessed, blest.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- fiendish a.
- Like a fiend; diabolically wicked or cruel; infernal; malignant; devilish; hellish.
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- hateful a.
- Manifesting hate or hatred; malignant; malevolent.
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Pains of Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Pains of Sleep, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/the-pains-of-sleep.html, id L00356.
Form and metre
The Pains of Sleep is 52 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 58% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDEDEE-- layA · prayA · kneesB · degreesB · composeC · closeC · resignationD · exprestE · supplicationD · imprestE · unblestE · everywhere · are
- 2 A-A-BBBCCDDEEFGFGHH aloudA · agony · crowdA · me · throngB · wrongB · strongB · willC · stillC · mixedD · fixedD · brawlE · allE · hidF · knowG · didF · woeG · sameH · shameH
- 3 AAB-CCDDEEFGFGFFBBHH dismayA · dayA · meB · calamity · screamC · dreamC · wildD · childD · subduedE · moodE · dueF · sinG · anewF · withinG · viewF · doF · agreeB · meB · needH · indeedH
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ere on my bed my limbs I lay, | 8 | ········ |
| It hath not been my use to pray | 8 | ········ |
| With moving lips or bended knees; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But silently, by slow degrees, | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| My spirit I to Love compose, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| In humble trust mine eye-lids close, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With reverential resignation, | 9 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| No wish conceived, no thought exprest, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Only a sense of supplication; | 9 | /˘······· |
| A sense o'er all my soul imprest | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That I am weak, yet not unblest, | 8 | ········ |
| Since in me, round me, everywhere | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Eternal Strength and Wisdom are. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| But yester-night I pray'd aloud | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| In anguish and in agony, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Up-starting from the fiendish crowd | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A lurid light, a trampling throng, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Sense of intolerable wrong, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| And whom I scorned, those only strong! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thirst of revenge, the powerless will | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Still baffled, and yet burning still! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Desire with loathing strangely mixed | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| On wild or hateful objects fixed. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Fantastic passions! maddening brawl! | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| And shame and terror over all! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Deeds to be hid which were not hid, | 8 | ········ |
| Which all confused I could not know | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Whether I suffered, or I did: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For all seem'd guilt, remorse or woe, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My own or others still the same | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So two nights passed: the night's dismay | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Saddened and stunned the coming day. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to me | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Distemper's worst calamity. | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The third night, when my own loud scream | 8 | ········ |
| Had waked me from the fiendish dream, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'ercome with sufferings strange and wild, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wept as I had been a child; | 8 | ········ |
| And having thus by tears subdued | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| My anguish to a milder mood, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Such punishments, I said, were due | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| To natures deepliest stained with sin: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For aye entempesting anew | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The unfathomable hell within | 8 | ·˘/˘˘··· |
| The horror of their deeds to view, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To know and loathe, yet wish and do! | 8 | ········ |
| Such griefs with such men well agree, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But wherefore, wherefore fall on me? | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To be beloved is all I need, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And whom I love, I love indeed. | 8 | ······˘/ |
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