sleep flower

plural sleep flowers · alternative sleep-flower

1. literarypoeticA poppy, particularly the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, whose extract was traditionally used as a sleep aid.

   It was not for a sacred cause, Nor for faith, nor for new generations, That unburied we roll and float Beneath this flaming tumult of drunken sleep-flowers.

   1922, John Gould Fletcher, Preludes and Symphonies (poem), Poppies of the Red Year, page 98

   5 more examples

   In the cracks of the marble floors, in the crannies of the walls, springing from beneath the broken statue, voiceless yet persistent, grow scarlet poppies — the sleep flowers of the world, yielding to this yellowing Temple of Mysteries the quieting influence of their presence.

   1900, Lilian Bell, As Seen By Me

   The sleep-flower sways in the wheat its head, Heavy with dreams, as that with bread: The goodly grain and the sun-flush'd sleeper The reaper reaps, and Time the reaper.

   before 1908, Francis Thompson, The Poppy (poem)

   There were poppies everywhere — red and white and yellow, in groups and clusters, hanging their drowsy heads in the noonday sun which still seemed robbed of half its power here. "Sleep-flowers, you know," said Mary, who was an authority on these matters.

   1909 September 16, Ethel Young, “Amore's Garden of Sleep”, in Presbyterian Banner, volume 96, Presbyterian Banner Publishing Company

   The Digger tribe of Indians in California, whose nomad traditions have long since been seared out of existence by the white man's scorn, have held to the legend of the tiny crimson poppies that grow on the edge of the desert in the spring. They are called "sleep flowers" and the story goes that he who lies among them for even a little while will be visited forevermore by a spirit who will drag him each night to that same spot.

   1918, Katherine Taylor Craig, The Fabric of Dreams, page 137

   Strange fellowship of Nature! I had snared On that wold's height a memory to keep Of sleep-flowers and an ever-chanting bird— Poppies by Lethe known, a lark's song heard— The lord of waking and the lords of sleep.

   1924, Eric Chilman, “Bird and Flower”, in The Windsor Magazine, volume 60 (poem)

2. fantasyAny flower whose consumption, in whole or in part, causes the consumer to fall asleep.

   […] The wind will shift and the way will open. […] Then, go back to the garden with the sleep flowers. Use Jinn's power to control the wind, and spread the sleep pollen into Rolante castle.

   1995, Squaresoft, Seiken Densetsu 3, SNES

   1 more example

   After the lazy lover had sown the sleep seed all over the grounds, he went away.[…] All along the galleries it grew and grew, and in a few days the air of the place was heavy with the scent of the pale-coloured sleep-flowers. Then the whole world of the palace began to drowse.[…] And the pale sleep-flowers bloomed thicker and thicker, and the air grew heavier and heavier, and at last everybody was lapped in sleep.

   1875, “The Sleep Seed”, in The Peep-show: for Little Readers, Oxford University