# Epigraph explained — The Hashish Eater

> Chapter companion for The Hashish Eater by Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

## What happens

The chapter opens with an epigraph from Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan,' invoking a mystical and visionary tone that sets the stage for the narrator's own explorations of altered states and transcendent experiences.

## Themes in this chapter

### Visionary Experience and Imagination

The epigraph directly invokes a visionary, almost sacred experience, suggesting the narrator's journey into altered states.

### Orientalism and Exoticism

The reference to 'Kubla Khan' and its exotic, Eastern imagery sets an orientalist tone for the narrative.

## Character check-ins

### Coleridge

Quoted as the author of 'Kubla Khan,' whose lines about honey-dew and the milk of Paradise foreshadow the themes of visionary experience.

## Key lines

> Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Encircle him three times and shut your eyes in awe, because he has consumed the divine nectar of honey-dew and the milk of Paradise.

_This epigraph from Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' establishes a mood of mystical reverence and hints at the narrator's own consumption of hashish as a means to access transcendent realms._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_hashish_eater_se/chapters/epigraph
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_hashish_eater_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_hashish_eater_se/chapters