of opiates and other things

[llywela]

Okay, so one of the things I did recently was spend a day out in Cowbridge with my mother. Cowbridge is a pretty little market town a few miles west of Cardiff. It has quirky little shops to wander around, and it also has a medieval Physic Garden, which was restored about 10 years ago and is now freely open to the public.

In the Physic Garden, I found this:


To Laudanum
"Thou faithful friend in all my grief
In thy soft arms I find relief
In thee forget my woes
Unfeeling waste my wintry day
And pass with thee the night away
Reclin'd in soft repose"

Yep,you read it right, that's an ode to laudanum, written by the bard Iolo Morgannwg in 1794. Because why wouldn't an 18th century poet write an ode to the virtues of opium!

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

LOL! Mind, in the days before other sorts of pain relief, you can't really blame him, can you? If the potential existed for someone sawing your leg off without anaesthetic, I might write in praise of laudanum. :-)