Thursday, May 18, 2006

Dreamer

"All that you see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."

4 comments:

  1. A dream to some, a nightmare to others," Merlin/Excalibur

    Empirical reality may be ethereal, but it is certainly not disembodied. Nature is offhandedly enthusiastic about express delivering bursting cans of whoop ass.

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  2. Beautiful quote. Can you provide the exact source? I tried a bit of Googling but couldn't find it.

    I'm sure Jorge Luis Borges must have been aware of the line -not only the idea of nested dreams appears in many of his works, but I also seem to recall he uses an almost literal Spanish version of this quote once or twice. I didn't know it came form Poe.

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  3. The entire poem is just as interesting:

    Take this kiss upon the brow!
    And, in parting from you now,
    Thus much let me avow-
    You are not wrong, who deem
    That my days have been a dream;
    Yet if hope has flown away
    In a night, or in a day,
    In a vision, or in none,
    Is it therefore the less gone?
    All that we see or seem
    Is but a dream within a dream.

    I stand amid the roar
    Of a surf-tormented shore,
    And I hold within my hand
    Grains of the golden sand-
    How few! yet how they creep
    Through my fingers to the deep,
    While I weep- while I weep!
    O God! can I not grasp
    Them with a tighter clasp?
    O God! can I not save
    One from the pitiless wave?
    Is all that we see or seem
    But a dream within a dream?

    Edgar Allan Poe

    Bee, came by way of Lubos and I really like your blog!

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  4. Hi alejandro,

    the poem is called A Dream within a Dream, and you can probably find it in some Poe-collection, sorry, don't know an exact reference.

    Thanks for the nice words, rea ann :-)

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