Yet, mad am I not β and very surely do I not dream.
Interpretation
The speaker asserts their sanity and reality against the backdrop of perceived madness or dreams.
In this quote, Edgar Allan Poe expresses a complex relationship between sanity and the intricacies of the mind. The statement 'mad am I not' suggests a confrontation with doubt about one's mental state, while 'very surely do I not dream' emphasizes a desire to anchor oneself in reality, even amidst chaotic thoughts or experiences that could easily lead one to question their grasp on what is real.
In practice
This quote could be used in a philosophical discussion about perception and reality.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
We must distinguish between the kind of structural transformation that would leave in place (even increase) the realities of the exploitation of labor, and one that would undo this kind of exploitation or at least radically reduce it
I don't think I had even begun to have an idea where I was going, but wherever it was, that was where I wanted to go.
When civilization takes a nose dive, how can you look away? You've got to be there. You've got to be at the bottom of the swimming pool taking notes.
The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.