WHITE POPPY. 209 



Few know that elegance of soul refined 

 Whose soil sensation feels a quicker joy 

 From melancholy's scenes, than the dull pride 

 Of tasteless splendour and magnificence 

 Can e'er afford. 



WARTON. 



THE WHITE POPPY. 



An insipid oil is expressed from the grains of the white 

 poppy, -which calms the senses and provokes sleep. Would 

 not the unhappy lover, who dreads that the object of his 

 love has no reciprocal feeling, thus express himself in the 

 words of H. Smith ? — 



O gentle sleep! 

 Scatter thy drowsiest poppies from above; 

 And in new dreams, not soon to vanish, bless 

 My senses ; 



Yea, gladly would he become insensible to the agonies 

 of unrequited love. 



The palace of Somnus, who presided over sleep, was 

 represented as a dark cave, into which the sun's rays never 

 penetrated ; and at the entrance grew poppies and other 

 somniferous herbs ; the Dreams watched over his couch, 

 attended by Morpheus, his prime minister, holding a vase 

 in one hand, and grasping poppies in the other. 



