{
 "id": "maria-lowell/an-opium-fantasy",
 "title": "An Opium Fantasy",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Maria Lowell",
 "poet_slug": "maria-lowell",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Maria Lowell",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 13,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "The Poems of Maria Lowell (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/maria-lowell_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/uva-lib:439721",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Soft hangs the opiate in the brain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lulling soothes the edge of pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till harshest sound, far off or near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sings floating in its mellow sphere.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What wakes me from my heavy dream?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or am I still asleep?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Those long and soft vibrations seem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A slumberous charm to keep.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The graceful play, a moment stopped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Distance again unrolls,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like silver balls, that, softly dropped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ring into golden bowls.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I question of the poppies red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fairy flaunting band,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While I a weed, with drooping head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within their phalanx stand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Some airy one, with scarlet cap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The name unfold to me",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this new minstrel, who can lap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep in his melody?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bright grew their scarlet-kerchiefed heads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As freshening winds had blown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from their gently swaying beds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They sang in undertone,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Oh, he is but a little owl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The smallest of his kin,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who sits beneath the midnight’s cowl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And makes this airy din.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Deceitful tongues, of fiery tints,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far more than this you know⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That he is your enchanted prince,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doomed as an owl to go;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nor his fond play for years hath stopped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But nightly he unrolls",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His silver balls, that, softly dropped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ring into golden bowls.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}