“loving a haze of hasheesh for making the brain
go wrong”
-Damon Runyon
Alfred ‘Damon Runyon’
ROSES OF A DREAM
Many songwriters have woven there love of cannabis into their art. But before Guthrie and Dylan there was Damon Runyon.
In this early 1900’s song, Runyon weaves his ode to Hasheesh with wit unmatched for decades to come…
“And loving a haze of hasheesh for making the brain
go wrong
Did I say that I loved the odor? Ah, well, let
the roses be”
Dug up this gem that was first published in the newspaper around 1908 but later in the Author’s own book ‘The Tents of Trouble’ in 1911.
ROSES OF A DREAM
A woman’s a scent of perfume; a snatch of a
passing song,
And loving a haze of hasheesh for making the brain
go wrong;
Dear Christ! But I loved the odor, the music spoke
Heaven to me
(Hark! That’s the pound of the breakers and the roar
of the open sea!)
Somehow I’m thinking of roses but blessing
the coral bar
That sends me the song of the breakers my thinking might
wander too far;
Somehow I’m thinking of roses and dreaming and dreaming
Ah, me!
(Hark! That’s the throb of the breakers and the sound
of the open sea!)
Somehow I m thinking of roses and scenting
a rose perfume;
Oh, this is the springtime yonder, and roses are coming
to bloom!
And soon it will be white summer but what can it
mean to me?
(Hark! There’s the song of the breakers and the voice
of the open sea!)
Somehow I m thinking of roses and light and a
lilting song
(But loving’s a haze of hasheesh for making the brain
go wrong.)
Of roses of white and crimson of dusk and a
friendly tree
(Hark! There’s the sound of the breakers and the roar
of the open sea!)
Aye, a woman s a scent of perfume, the breath of a
fading rose
And music don’t last forever, however
sweetly it goes;
But somehow I m thinking of roses that carry
an ancient plea
(Thank God! There’s the throb of the breakers and the
roar of the open sea!)
A woman’s a scent of perfume, a snatch of a
passing song
And loving a haze of hasheesh for making the brain
go wrong
Did I say that I loved the odor? Ah, well, let
the roses be
(Hark! There s the wail of the breakers and the sigh
of the open sea!)
By Damon Runyon
Goodwin’s weekly; a thinking paper for thinking people, July 11, 1908
