Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OPIUM HARVEST, by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OPIUM HARVEST, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: High up in hollow valleys where dim lakes
Last Line: Round the wide world in bales of solid sleep.
Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; Narcotics; Opium; Cocaine; Crack; Heroin


HIGH up in hollow valleys where dim lakes
In Karahissar find no watershed,
By many a snow-gorged roaring river-bed,
In long white fluttering waves the poppy shakes;

But spring-tide comes at last, and April wakes,
And tears the petals from the golden head,
Till, of its pink wings disinherited,
The opium-laden capsule bends and bakes.

Then, after sunset, the sleek farmers creep
To slash the poppy-globes, and leave them soon
Oozing green tears beneath the gibbous moon;

Tears, that in scallop-shells, when dawn shall peep,
Patient, they'll gather; then, dismiss the boon
Round the wide world in bales of solid sleep.





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