"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night " Which work of Poe contains this sentence?

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

Answers

Hi, Akiko. This comes from the story "Eleonora." The nameless narrator begins with the following description of himself:

I am come of a race noted for vigor of fancy and ardor of passion. Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence  whether much that is glorious  whether all that is profound  does not spring from disease o thought  from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the genera intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in waking, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil. They penetrate, however, rudderless or compassless into the vast ocean of the 'light ineffable,' and again, like the adventures of the Nubian geographer [Ali-Idrisi], 'agressi sunt mare tenebrarum, quid in eo esset [page 6:] exploraturi' [They entered the sea of darkness in order that they might explore what was therein].

Hope this helps! Emily Horton

P.S. I cut and pasted the above paragraph from an interesting article, "Bedlam Patterns":Love and the Idea of Madness in Poe's Fiction from the Baltimore EAP website. It's very interesting.

P.P.S. The Gutenberg Project has The Complete Works of Poe available to download, if you'd like to find an online copy of "Eleanora."

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2000