« The dream, a treacherous snake hatched in the down,
Rolls a flattering fetter around my arms,
On my lips distills a philter in its drool,
And amuses me with the changing colors it takes on.

Since it emerged from under my bedside,
My blood slides frozen like warm lava,
Its knots make me captive and its looks a slave,
And I live as if some other person in me lived.

But soon I knew the pain of its caress;
In vain I writhe under its weight that oppresses me,
I fall back and cannot free myself from it.

Its tooth seeks my heart, turns it over and gnaws at it;
And, all entangled in shreds of dream,
I die. — Oh heavy monster! who are you?  » (René-François Sully Prudhomme, L’ennui)