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[Savok]

While I was reading the poem Kubla Khan (full text) recently, I instantly thought of DF when I read this line:
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

"The Deep Romantic Chasm of Slanting"

[Goncyn]

That's one of my favorite poems. The story of how it was written is interesting, also. I'll just quote from the Wikipedia article:

quote:Coleridge claimed that the poem was inspired by an opium-induced dream (implicit in the poem's subtitle A Vision in a Dream), but that the composition was interrupted by the person from Porlock. Some have speculated that the vivid imagery of the poem stems from a waking hallucination, albeit most likely opium-induced. Additionally a quote from William Bartram[1] is believed to have been a source of the poem. There is widespread speculation on the poem's meaning, some suggesting the author is merely portraying his vision while others insist on a theme or purpose. Others believe it is a poem stressing the beauty of creation.

According to Coleridge, he awoke from his opium dream/stupor with the poem fully formed in his head and immediately began to write it down. A caller at the door interrupted him, and when he went to resume writing, it had gone from his mind. Thus the somewhat abbreviated nature of the poem. Maybe an apocryphal story, but a nice one nonetheless.

[Name Lips]

At this point it's a wistful legend. "Who knows how long and great and inspring the poem could have been, if not for that unfortunate knock at the door?"

For all we know, more verses might have ruined it. As it is, it's wonderful. I used to have the whole thing memorized, but I've forgotten some of it now...  

[Grue]

Well, if he didn't wake up, the dream would've been lost too. One can remember the dream only if he wakes up in the middle of it. Otherwise the short-term memory, where the dream is contained, gets overwritten by the other stuff.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I think the whole DF was at some point inspired by a certain piece of poetry from The Lord of the Ring. Namely, the one Gimli recites in Moria:

The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
He named the nameless hills and dells;
He drank from yet untasted wells;
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,
And saw a crown of stars appear,
As gems upon a silver thread,
Above the shadow of his head.

The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin's Day.

A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.

There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.

Unwearied then were Durin's folk
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,
And at the gates the trumpets rang.

The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep.

I always think of DF when I read the middle part. "There hammer on the anvil smote, there chisel clove and graver wrote, there forged was blade and bound was hilt, the delver mined, the mason built..."

[ September 13, 2007: Message edited by: Sean Mirrsen ]