“The Pains of Sleep” Summary

“The Pains of Sleep” Themes

• 

  The Helplessness of Sleep and the Power of the Unconscious

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• 

  Faith, Punishment, and Divine Justice

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• 

  Addiction, Desire, and Shame

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Pains of Sleep”

• Lines 1-5

  Ere on my bed my limbs I lay,
  It hath not been my use to pray
  With moving lips or bended knees;
  But silently, by slow degrees,
  My spirit I to Love compose,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-9

  In humble trust mine eye-lids close,
  With reverential resignation,
  No wish conceived, no thought exprest,
  Only a sense of supplication;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-13

  A sense o'er all my soul imprest
  That I am weak, yet not unblest,
  Since in me, round me, every where
  Eternal strength and Wisdom are.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-17

  But yester-night I prayed aloud
  In anguish and in agony,
  Up-starting from the fiendish crowd
  Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 18-20

  A lurid light, a trampling throng,
  Sense of intolerable wrong,
  And whom I scorned, those only strong!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-22

  Thirst of revenge, the powerless will
  Still baffled, and yet burning still!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 23-26

  Desire with loathing strangely mixed
  On wild or hateful objects fixed.
  Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
  And shame and terror over all!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 27-30

  Deeds to be hid which were not hid,
  Which all confused I could not know
  Whether I suffered, or I did:
  For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-32

  My own or others still the same
  Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-36

  So two nights passed: the night's dismay
  Saddened and stunned the coming day.
  Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to me
  Distemper's worst calamity.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  The third night, when my own loud scream
  Had waked me from the fiendish dream,
  O'ercome with sufferings strange and wild,
  I wept as I had been a child;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-44

  And having thus by tears subdued
  My anguish to a milder mood,
  Such punishments, I said, were due
  To natures deepliest stained with sin,—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 45-48

  For aye entempesting anew
  The unfathomable hell within,
  The horror of their deeds to view,
  To know and loathe, yet wish and do!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 49-50

  Such griefs with such men well agree,
  But wherefore, wherefore fall on me?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 51-52

  To be beloved is all I need,
  And whom I love, I love indeed.

  

  

  

  

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“The Pains of Sleep” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“The Pains of Sleep” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Ere
• Hath
• Use
• Reverential resignation
• Exprest
• Supplication
• O'er
• Imprest
• Unblest
• Yester-night
• Up-starting
• Lurid
• Throng
• Baffled
• Fixed
• Fantastic
• Brawl
• Woe
• Stifling
• So
• Distemper
• Calamity
• O'ercome
• As I had been
• Subdued
• Deepliest
• For aye
• Entempesting
• Loathe
• Wherefore
• Indeed

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Pains of Sleep”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Pains of Sleep” Speaker

“The Pains of Sleep” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Pains of Sleep”

More “The Pains of Sleep” Resources

• External Resources

  • Friends of Coleridge — Visit the Friends of Coleridge, a society dedicated to Coleridge's work.

  • A Short Biography — Learn more about Coleridge's life and work via the British Library.

  • Opium and the Romantics — Read an essay about how opium, a commonly prescribed drug in the 19th century, influenced Romantic writers like Coleridge, whose own withdrawal pains inspired this poem. 

  • Coleridge's Legacy — Read biographer Richard Holmes's discussion of what makes Coleridge's poetry special.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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  • Frost at Midnight

  • Kubla Khan

  • The Eolian Harp

  • This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison