Many of these poets romanticized the virtues of taking opium. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge proclaimed that his poem “Kubla Khan” was composed in a flush of opium-induced inspiration. For instance, the poet and opium addict Francis Thompson noted on one occasion that he saw the sun rise “with a clash of cymbals” on another occasion, he described how “tunes rose in twirls of gold” when “light through the petals of a buttercup clanged like a beaten gong.” He also heard “the enameled tone of shallow flute, and the furry richness of clarinet.” Their descriptions sometimes include visions that remind me of contemporary reports by synesthetes. Several English writers and poets of the Romantic period wrote about their opium experiences, including Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, George Crabbe, and Francis Thompson. It was also the drug of choice for dealing with sleep difficulties. In 18th-century England, opium was considered a normal medicine and was used in much the same way that people use aspirin today: Opium was considered a good remedy for pain, fatigue, and depression and could be obtained at the local shop. But that relationship turns out to be quite different from what I expected. One thing became immediately clear: There is, without a doubt, a special relationship between drugs and synesthesia. After reading wild descriptions by poets proclaiming the merits of their drug-induced synesthesia, I studied the pharmacology and neurology of the same experiences and compared notes. In the literature room I followed with delight the tracks of poets and novelists as they took their perceptual experiments to the edges of human experience.
This article is adapted from Crétien van Campen’s book “ The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science.”
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