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Compline

Time And Calendar
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The final prayer service of the traditional Christian daily office, said before sleep. It is associated with nightfall, rest, and mortality.

Detailed Definition
Compline is the late-night office in the monastic pattern of prayer, traditionally marking the close of the day before sleep. Its language of protection, forgiveness, and peaceful rest has made it resonant in religious and secular poetry alike. A poem invoking Compline may frame night as a spiritual threshold, where the speaker reviews the day, confronts vulnerability, or accepts the small rehearsal of death implied by sleep.
Example
Example in poetry:
Compline is the final prayer service of the traditional Christian day, often associated with night, protection, and rest; In a monastery poem, the bells for Compline can signal that labor and speech are ending; “After Compline, even the cloister listened” uses the service as a marker of sacred silence; T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets draws on liturgical rhythms that can help poets understand how services such as Compline organize time
Additional Notes
Compline is the final daily office in Christian liturgy, traditionally said near bedtime and associated with examination, prayer, protection through the night, and surrender to sleep. In poetry it may carry echoes of ritual, quiet community, mortality, or death as a final rest. Contrast matins, the morning office, and vespers, evening prayer. If using the term, let its religious specificity matter; consider whether the speaker participates, remembers, resists, or overhears the rite.
Also Known As
Night Prayer
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