The Pains Of Sleep By Robert Southey Essay - 1394 Words

The couplets encompass the odd tension of The Pains of Sleep : the ending is both over-long, extending the natural length of the stanza by an additional two lines, and abrupt, answering the universal despair of wherefore fall on me? with an admittedly lacklustre response. The insistent repetition - such, wherefore, love - furthers the resounding resolution of the poem. Coleridge s draft of the poem in a letter to Robert Southey suggests that there is potential for movement beyond the declaration of the last line, for he affixes -- c c c c c -- onto the end of the line, and whilst a large portion of the draft is altered for its publication in 1816, this line remains untouched. Perhaps the clue is in one of the lines from The Pains of Sleep which is altered for its 1816 publication but exists in the draft version sent to Southey as well: The self-created Hell within. (Letter to Robert Southey, September 12 1803.) The unfathomable Hell within. ( The Pains of Sleep , line 46.) The poem can be seen as a verbal translation of the self-created Hell within: whilst the poem is structurally contained, the unfathomable interior world it describes, and the claustrophobic blending of reality and unreality, all contribute to it seeming incomplete upon interrogation. Coleridge rejects the universal question in favour of a personal answer because the poem cannot adequately make sense of the distorted images it contains. UnlikeShow MoreRelated Samuel Taylor Coleridges Life and Achievements1007 Words   |  5 Pagesability to fight or even ride a horse, Coleridge quit. With so much occurring in his life, Coleridge would soon branch out into the poetry world. In 1795, Coleridge married Sara Fricker. The so-called â€Å"marriage† was setup by his former colleague, Robert Southey. Unable to deal with the pressure, Coleridge had a difficult time pleasing and keeping a woman he did not love. The next year their first son, Hartley, was born. Luckily, Coleridge would meet someone who would not only better, but transform bothRead MoreThe Romantic Victorians Essay1707 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Ancyent Marinere. Unfortunately, He took opium to relief his rheumatic pains and that is when his addiction began. Coleridge’s addiction to opium is not accepted by his society and he became more and more dependent. The poem â€Å"Kubla Khan† is greatly influenced by opium and he leaves the ending of the poem to the imagination of the reader. He also sends a poem entitled â€Å"The Pains of Sleep† to his brother in law Robert Southey to explain to him his suffering of depending on opium. Coleridge shows signsRead MoreLiterary An alysis Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge3984 Words   |  16 PagesSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an influential British philosopher, critic, and writer of the early eighteenth century. He was a prominent member of a literary group known as the â€Å"Lake Poets,† which included renowned writers like William Wordsworth and Robert Southey. His writings and philosophy greatly contributed to the formation and construction of modern thought. He possessed an extensive, creative imagination, and developed his own imagination theories in his writings. However, his personal life was absorbedRead MorePOETRY 2 11389 Words   |  46 Pages— Poems  1. Where the Mind is Without Fear 5 — 7 Rabindranath Tagore 2. The Inchcape Rock 7 — 11 Robert Southey 3. In the Bazaars of Hyderabad 11 — 14 Sarojini Naidu 4. Small Pain in My Chest 14 — 17 Michael Mack 5. The Professor 17 — 20 Nissim Ezekiel 6. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 20 — 23 Robert Frost 7. A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 23 — 26 Vikram Seth 8. If Thou Must Love Me 26 —