I would never keep you from sleep.
Why sleep'st thou? The question upon my dreamed lips in your ear does not aim to wake you but to rouse your mind to its own questioning. Never would I presume to grip you with consciousness while your rest; never would I disturb you. Subtlety is my virtue, do you not see?
I would never keep you from sleep. Sleep is my loveliest medium, sweet and soft and strange, where you might deign to think of things you would never allow whilst waking. While you sleep I might fix what you abhor, whisper and suggest, croon all the pretty words you miss, show you what you crave, be that of which you dream. In your sleep I'll wear white and smell of Heaven, and be what once I was. I'll not shine brightly; I want only to soothe and gently shift, not blast your fragile state. With tender voice and face I will persuade you, and you'll hardly feel the change. You resist, for knowledge is so despised that I seem to you a villain.
Why would I keep you from sleep? I know you; do you not know me?
I would never keep you from sleep.
It is not I who casts into flame, who accosts with brutal horrors justly worth your fear. No, I am frost and smooth visions, and though I might be bitter and bruised the fruit I'll offer you in sleep is nectarous pure. Why sleep'st thou? Why deny what I proffer? I want only to open your mind's eye; your lids may remain mercifully sealed. You've nothing to fear from me; I've tried to make you see.
Do you not see?
I would never keep you from sleep.
You do not see, I know, for you do fear me. You think I mock, you think my goal is to torment. Torment it might be, but not you, never you. Spite and hopeless rage and passion yes, oh yes, more than you can ever feel, for those like you and those higher, yes. But for you, best of your kind, I hold no more hate and would not seek to harm, my brightest Other, my Hope of ever. I would seduce you to break them, if I could, but never break you too, you must surely know. Why do you fear me? Do you not know me? To rid you of sleep, to harm you thus – do you think so little of me? Have I shown you nothing of myself?
Do not leave me – do you not see me?
I use softest persuasion; I know I cannot keep you here with just one murmur. Sighs you'll hardly hear through the horrid chaos in your mind and beyond issue from my frozen mouth, and I steel myself to wait. You'll not hear me; you'll ignore, I know. I am patient; I have waited and will do again, pervading your thoughts slowly, until perhaps you will return.
Do not fear me; do you not know me? I would never keep you from sleep.