New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1906-02-28
POETS IN DREAMLAND1
WORK DONE OR IMAGINED WHILE
WRAPPED IN sLUMBER.

Stories OF Sublime Verse That Was
Born During Sleep Only to Die In
the Waking of the Author-The Gem
That COleridEe Lost.
In Sir MountStuart Duff's Notes
From Diary" it is related that the |
late Lord Lytton, when viceroy OF /
India, had repeated to his guests on |
one occasion poem which he profess |
ed to have composed when asleep:
There are boating and sailing
And fishing for grayling
Where the blue waves roll nightly on
deep Galilee,
But sweeter the places
Where aldermen's braces
Are sold for boot laces In bonnie Dun
dee.
The diarist ventured to doubt wheth-
er the viceroy was not trying to impose
on the credulity Of his friends, sus
picion which will be shared by most
readers
But, whether these lines were dream
ed or not, there can be no doubt that
one Of the most curious sections Of the
whole subject of dream work is that
which relates to the comparative value
Of work done or imagined in sleep. No
experience is more general than the
waking from particularly vivid dream
only to find that in the very process of
waking the whole vision, apparently so
real and strong for brief moment,
vanishes beyond recall. This dissolv'
ing touch Of psychical or dream life Is
like the contact of the air with long
entombed, we'll preserved human body
! suddenly exposed to the light of day.
While the tomb openers gaze upon the
features so strangely preserved from
a long past day the touch Of the air
does its work, and the relic Of hui
mainly crumbles to dust
A strange point about the difficulty
in keeping in mental grip Of dream
is that, although no detail can be re-
membered, an impression remains
which in cases that have been tested
has often turned out to be quite incor-
fish poet, best known as the translator
of the Portuguese epic, the "Lusiad''
of Camoens, that he always regretted
he could not remember the poetry
which be composed in his sleep. 1t
was, he said, SO infinitely superior to
anything he could produce in his wax
ing hours One morning on waking he
was lamenting, as he had SO often done
before, that he should be conscious OF
having composed such sublime poetry
and yet be unable to recall word Of
it. "What." said his wife, who happen
: ed to be awake. Were you writing
poetry? 2" YES he replied. "and sucl
poetry that l would give the world t.
remember it." "Well. then" said she
st did luckily hear the last lines, and
| am sure | remembered them exactly
They were:
: "By heaven, I'll wreak my woes
Upon the cowslip and the pale primrose!
Mr.. Mickle was probably cured Of hi
:, habit of lamentation.
: The late Lewis Carroll noted in hi
= DIARY that he once heard Tennysol
relate that he had often dreamed lon
: passages Of poetry and believed then
> to be good at the time, but could neve
remember any of them on waking e1
cent four lines which he dreamed a
ten years old, and these We're the mo1
ing verses:
/, May cock sparrow
Write to barrow?
3 l hope you'll excuse
IS Ny infantile muse.
h This, as the diarist remarks, as a
q t,ppi1bIishod fro pInant of tho late 1a1
1t reate, may be thought interesting, bu
d not affording much promise Of his af
$ er powers" On the same occasion Tel
$ nyson told his hearers that he ono
10 dreamed an enormously long poei
2 about fairies, which began with yer
4. long lines that gradually got shorte
le ana ended with fifty or sixty lines {