The Alamogordo news. (Alamogordo, N.M.) 1899-1912, 1906-01-13
POETS In NDREAMLAND
WORK DONE or IMAGINED WHILE
WRAPPED IN sLUM6gR.


In Sir MOuntstuart Duff's "Notes
From a Diary" II Is related that the
late Lord LyttOn. when viceroy OF
India. had repeated to his guests on
one occasion poem which he profess
ell 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 vIeerOy was not trying to impose
on the credulity Of his friends, a sus-
piclOn 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 tovthe 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, well preserved human body
/ suddenly exposed to the light Of day.
While the tomb openers gaze upon the
features so strangely preserved from
long past day the touch Of the air
does Its work. and the relic Of hu-
manity crumbles to dust.
A strange point about the difficulty
in keeping in mental grip Of a 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
rect. 1t Is related by Iickle, the Scot
!, tIsh poet, best known as the translator
Of the Portuguese epic, the 'Lusiad'
of Camoens, that he always regretted
he could not remember the pOetr!
which he composed in his sleep. l
was, he said, so infinitely superior +
anything he could produce in his wax
) ing hours. One morning on waking h
, was lamenting, as he had so often don
before, that he should be conscious o
having composed such sublime pOetr
9 and ret he rnahle to recall n word Q
! | it. .KtHhatss said his wife, who happeI
ed to be awake. ''Were you writin
: pOetryT' YES" he replied, "and sue
!, poetry that would give the world t
q remember it," "Well, then." said sht
''I did luckily hear the last lines, and
am sure / remembered them exactly
: They were:
8 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 Tennyso
:, relate that he had often dreamed Ion
? passages OF poetry and believed theI
y to be good at the time, but could neye
remember any Of them on waking e.
! cept four lines which he dreamed .
ten years old, and these were the mo-
e ing verses:
II May a cock sparrow
Write to barrow?
] hope You'll excuse
i Ny infantile muse.
This, as the diarist remarks. as a
unpublished fragment Of the late Ial
reate, "may be thought interesting, bV
v not affOrding much promise Of his af
err powers" On the same occasion Tel
nyson told his hearers that lie ono
O about fairies, which began with veI
long lines that gradually got short'
and ended with fifty or sixty lines I
y two syllables each!
|. On the other hand. poets have occ
~ sionally found their dreams Of servic
SOuthey in q letter to his brother say
.. II forgot my dreams and have no Da
lei to help out my recollection, and
by chance do remember them unle
they are instantly written down the II
preston passes away almost as light
as the dream ITSELF" But he goes on
ID say that one or two OF his dreams we
noted at the time and were afterwal
= incorporated In scenes of his now lltt
W read poem, The Curse Of Kehama
~ And then, OF course, there Is the I
miliar story OF Coleridge falling aisle
= one summer afternoon in quiet far
8. house after reading about the XII
et KublaI in PUrcRias' s'Piigrlmes," CO
posing several hundred lines in I
course Of three hours sleep, wakiI
Is, and at once beginning to write the
1e down. only to be interrupted at I
fifty-fourth line by q visitor that ''p
~ son from Porlock" whose memory
ne execrated by alI lovers OF poetry-w
the result that on returning to his de
an hour Inter the poet found that
rest OF his dream verse had faded fr'
tn his memory. ~KubIai Khan" remal
st a melodious fragment, but II the p
son from Forlockv had only lost
~ way or had come to grief SUFFICIENT
to cause delay Of an hour or two
4. might have had completely beauti
poem. London Globe.
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