• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

The Opium Pipe [poem by Louis Esson]

8 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Louis Esson was published in Red Gums and Other Verses (1912).]

The Opium Pipe.

Upon a mat the Chinese smoker lay
Resting his head
On bag of straw, beside a wooden tray
With quaint bowls spread,

And having filled his long-bulbed pipe, he burned
Raw opium,
Inhaled the languid smoke, and dozing yearned
For dreams to come.

He did not see the haggard girls and men
Sprawl on the floor,
Nor that impassive keeper of the den
Guarding the door,

But down the pleasant river of his dream
He glided on
Until he saw the coloured lanterns gleam
In old Canton.

He saw the rice-fields, waterfalls and rills,
The shine and shiver
Of slender bamboos, and White Cloud hills,
The soft Pearl river;

Then, crooked streets with lacquered shops arrayed,
Dim camphor trees,
Flowery pagodas, gates of milky jade,
Brown junks, grey seas;

A row of river-pirates bent and bound
With bodies swaying,
A sword flash on the Execution-ground;
And children playing,

Fantastic banners, coolies rushing by,
Old men with kites,
Pigs roasted whole, a dragon in the sky,
Confused delights,

A world created by some drowsy Djin;
Till sleep’s caress
Blotted the colours and outlines in
Forgetfulness. . . .

Mute, motionless, the merchant of cheap dreams
Guarded the door;
Pale men and women, in the lamp’s last gleams
Sprawled on the floor,

Unconscious of the passing world, withdrawn
From dreamless folk;
When, startled by a glimmer of the dawn,
The sleeper woke.

He left the den of dreams at break of day,
Unlucky he
To change the bright illusion for the grey
Reality.



Source:
Louis Esson, Red Gums and Other Verses, Melbourne: Fraser & Jenkinson, 1912, pages 31-33

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Louis Esson (1878-1943) (author), poem, Red Gums and Other Verses (Louis Esson 1912), SourceIACLibrary, year1912

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • To Australia [poem by Ruby Jean Stephenson, 18 November 1943]
  • [General news items] [4 April 1912]
  • [Australia has had more than its share of shipping disasters of late] [4 April 1912]
  • [Probably Professor Marshall Hall was right] [4 April 1912]
  • Gold-seekers of the Fifties [1 July 1899]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Taking His Chance [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
  • Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Stephen on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • IAC on The late Louisa Lawson [by George Black, 2 October 1920]
  • Percy Delouche on Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • Phil on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in