Portal:Featured texts/57

"Betelguese, a trip through hell," a 1908 lyrical poem by Jean Louis De Esque.

According to De Esque the writing of the poem began when he was "up at [his] desk mauling and drubbing the English language with a vengeance for thirty-six consecutive hours, and that [he] awoke at 12.30 A.M," and began writing "Betelguese," continuing to work on it until the early morning. He repeated this process over the next fifteen nights. The Los Angeles Herald wrote that the poem "immortalized the dreams of the opium eater." In describing its rich language, the Manchester Literary Club wrote that "an enthusiastic philologist ... will make a heaven of it."

Caressed by crystal dews and light

Beyond the realm of scale and fin,

Incarian Thought flits Fancy wings

To hazards where a crimson urn

Makes scarlet this eternal height

Of sunless suns and reigning sin,—

Flame-decked this plain of warring kings

Where poisoned fumes and beacons burn!
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One of four featured texts in October 2012