Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-07-05

Deyenshire- In consequence of his indispositon
al anodyne had been prescribed for him lin other
words lie took dose of his familiar laudanum)
! from the effect Of which he fell asleep in his
| chalf at the moment he was reading the follow
| ING sentence, OF words of the same substance
! in Pufchas' ''Pilgrimage:" Here the Khan
hub.a commanded a palace to be built. and a
| stately garden thereunto: and thus ten miles OF
| fertile ground We're inciOSed with u WALL Cole
ridge continued three hours in q profound sleep
at least of the external senses. during which
/ Time lie believes he composed two or three hun
| dred lines, Of which on awaking he was able
| 10 recall and write down the fragment now 50
| famous. Had he not been intprruptrd and
| called away for an hour he thinks he would have
/ remembered more. The kubla Khan is not bad
! imagery for ''sleepless night" SO we recall
| here:
| In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
stately pleasure dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river. ran,
| through coNcrnS me l>Ilr. less to man,
Down to a sunless sea.
SO twice five miles Of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdied round:
! And there were gardens, bright with sinuous
riS.
Where biossomed many antncense bearing tree;
Ana mere were forests ancient as the hills,
InIoldinG sunny spots OF g1tenery.
But that deep romantic chasn, which slanted
i Down the green hill athWart Il Cedarn covert
savage place! as holy and enchanted
! rs Ger beneath It waning moon was haunted
BY woman waiting fer her demon lover.
Ana from this Cha5n with CeaSelcSS turmoil Sc eth
As if this earth in fast. thick pants were BREATHING
mighty fountain nOmently was forced,
Amid whose swift, half intcrlnitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rGbOunGing hail.
VI Ghany grain beneath the tllresAers Hal;
ANA MID these dancing rocks at once and ever
Il Il lung up mom2ntly he sacred river.
Eve miles, nl"andcrng with may motion
through wood and dale. the sacred river ran
Then reached the cayernS IneasureIess to man,
Ana SANK In tui4luit to a lltecss ocean,
y fol
Ancestral voices propnesyiGg war
Tho shadow OF ire dome OF pleasure
Fi02ted midway On the waves,
Who're was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
Jt was Il miracle OF rare device
sunny pleasure dome with caves OF ice!
a GdmSel with dulcner
In q vision once ! saw: ...- .'t r.
It was an AbySSinian maid,
AMI on her dulclmer she played,
Singing OF Mount AbOra.
Could revive within me
Her symphony ami song.
10 such Il ep delight twOuld win me
That, with music loud and long,
IWoUid build that come in air
That sunny dome! those caves of ice.
And all WHO heard should see them there
ANA al should cry, Beware! beware
His flashing eyes, his floating Ii lir,
Weave a circle round him thrice,
Ana close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey dew hath fed,
Ana drunk the Llilk Of Paradise.
We think that an expert cannot fail to trace
the influence of opium in this poem The sleen
! OF OPIUM 50 far as our experience teaches. DIFF
fers from that produced by liquor in being never
quite unconscious although self-c0nsciOusness
may be in allegiance. 1t is possible in such n
condition to imagine oneself ANONYMOUS. merely
scntient, observant and reflective being 1t
Is quite as possible to do this as to imagine. as
dreameFs so constantly do, that the circunl-
stances of ones life are wholly different from
the reality, the old fanCying themselves Young
the rich poor, and the pennless endCU ed with
bGundlcSS wealth. Opium thoughts can GEN.
orally he distinguished from all others 10y the
scnsuous sPlendor ard gOrgeOusnesS of the I'M
a@eFy. DeQuinceyS visions are as notable an
instance OF this as anything recorded Of Coler-
idge. So vivid and impressive is the panO-
rainIc effect OF his "Suspiria de PrOfundis" his
= Visions OF an Opium Eater" and his Dream
fugue, that even reading them in broad day.
night one seems to fail in line and march aloun
with them with stately tread and Quckened
pulse. Take as al example that wonderful de-
scription OF the dream pageant that passes be-
fore DeQuinceY'6 vision on the bare recurrence
Of the words Consul Romanus'' We have
not that dream at hand. bat take this from his
" Dream Fugue as a salient specimen of opium
Imagery:
PAGEANT FROM DE QUINCEY's DREAMS
immediately, in trance, | was carried over
land and sea TO some distant kingdom and
placed upon a triumphal car, among companions
crowned with laurel. The darkness of gather
ing midnight. broodne over all the land. hid
from us the mighty crowds that were weaving
reStlesSy about ourselves as center: we heard
them. but saw them not. Tdings had arrived.
within an hour, OF grandeur that measured
itself against centuries: too full of pathOs they
We're. too full of joy to utter themselves by
other language than by tears by restless an
thems, and lie Ut1nt,S reverberated from the
choirs and Orchestras Of earth. Where
lore was it that we delayed? We waited for q
ND hat CHI
hope of nations, as now accomplished forever.
At midnight the secret word arrived which
word was, Waterloo and Recovered Christen-
dom. The dreadful word shone by its own
light; before us it vent high above our leaders
heads it rode and spread golden light over the
paths which we trav-rsed. Every city at the
presence of the secret word threw open its
gates. The rivers were conscious as we crossed
Al the forests, as we ran along their margins
shiyered in homage to the secret word And the
darkness comprehended it.
Two hours after midnight we approached q
mighty Minister Its gates, which rose to the
clouds, were closed. But when the dreadful
word that rode before us, reach them with it's
golden light, silently they moved back uron
their hinges. and at a flying galop our equip
age entered the grand aisle of the cathedral
Headlong was our pace, and at every altar in
the little chapels and OratOres to the right
hand and left of our course, the lamps, dying or
sickening, kindled anew in sympathy with the
secret word that was flying past. Forty leagues
we might have run in the cathedral, and as vet
no strength Of morning light had reached us
when before US We saw the aerial galleries
of organ and choir. Every pinnacle of the fret
work, every station of advantage among the
traceries, was crested by white robed choris-
tiers, that sang deliyeraace, that wept no more
tears as once their fathers had wept, but at in
teryals that sang together to the generations.
saying:
Chant the deliverer's praise in every tongue,
and receiving answers from afar,
such as once In heaven and earth were sung
And OF their chanting was no end OF our head
long pace was neither pause nor slackenlng."
To advise oneself or others not to have
RECOURSE TO OPIATEs
either to procure sleep or induce splendid
dreams would be childish, as advice is never
taken, and everybody knows what we could tell
them of the Nemesis of narcotic drugs upon
the nervous system. The late Dante G. Rossetti
was a piteous example of the result Of chlora-
hydrate; Alfred de Musset, Of absinthe; Cole
ridge, Of the wreck that seventeen years Of