“Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?”
The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), Apology
Context: Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.
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William Morris 119
author, designer, and craftsman 1834–1896Related quotes
“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.”
“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.”
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (1784), Proposition 6.
Variant translations: Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built.
From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
Never a straight thing was made from the crooked timber of man.
Source: Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose
Son of a Son of a Sailor
Song lyrics, Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978)
“Why should it be my loneliness,
Why should it be my song,
Why should it be my dream
deferred
overlong?”
"Tell Me"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)
Source: Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe in 15 Einzelbänden
“The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
Hamlet, Act I, scene v.
Hamlet (1600–1)