Who said/wrote these famous words?

[Demogorgon]

Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite writers and I have pondered weak and weary over the origins of a quote that has puzzled me for some time. Could someone please help me solve this mystery?

This is the qoute:
"Sleep... Oh! how I loathe those little slices of death.... "
(some variations with "Dreams, How I loathe..." and such may occur)

It seems to be a widely spread opinion that this quote is from Poes work. Sometimes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is credited, but as far as I know it is commonly believed to originate from Edgar Allan Poe.

I have been searching through Poes complete works (all his poems, novels, short stories, long stories, some material that seemed to be scripts for different plays, some letters and articles) and I can't seem to find this sentence or anything remotely like it anywhere in his work. It could be something he actually said or something he wrote in a letter or article that I don't know of. Possible, yet not very likely. A quote as famous and well spread as this one would probably be easy to pinpoint if it really came from Poe.

I haven't found anything that resembles this quote in Longfellows complete poems either, but I haven't been as thorough in my research as in the case of Mr Poe.

What I did find was "The Columbia World of Quotations 1996" and a sequence from the 1959 film "Journey to the Center of the Earth. It goes like this:

"I don’t sleep. I hate those little slices of death."
ATTRIBUTION:
Journey to the Center of the Earth 1959 (based on the novel by Jules Verne)
Walter Reisch (1903–1963), Austrian screenwriter, Charles Brackett (1892–1969), U.S. and Henry Levin.
The character Count Saknussemm (Thayer David) at the edge of the sea, explaining to Lindenbrook why he isn’t resting.

Not exactly the same quote, but very close indeed. The scriptwriters are credited for the quote with no reference to Poe or Longfellow or anyone else. It is not to be found in the english translation of the original novel by Jules Verne either.

Any suggestion or information on the origins of this qoute? Does it come from Poe? If it does, where can I find it? If it doesn't, who said/wrote it and how did Poe end up with the credit (Nightmare on Elm Street III might be a good guess)?

It is a long "question" but I thought I might provide you with all the information I have gathered so far to make things easier for you. I have tried almost everything else (including unanswered e-mail to e-note and other sites), and this might be my last chance.

Please help my poor soul...

[slooney]

Have you received any information on whether it was Poe or Longfellow? The quote (or something very close to it) is used at the beginning of one of the "Freddy Kruger" horrow movies--I believe without attribution to the source, though I am not sure.

[slooney]

I just confirmed that the Movie is "Nightmare on Elm Street 3," and that it attributes the quote to Poe, for whatever that is worth.

[Demogorgon]

An answer at last; happy thaughts and lots of thanks my friend for taking your time considering my questions. :D

Yes, Nightmare On Elm Street III gives Poe credit for the qoute, and I think that is the reason why this is such a widely spread opinion. But as far as my research goes it is most likely not Edgar Allan Poe. I asked a well known Poe expert (I'm not sure if I can quote him or not) and he said that he did not recognise the qoute and he didn't think that it was something Degar Allan Poe said or wrote.

It is most likely not Longfellow either....

Well, I will keep on trying figure this one out, and when I get to the poodles core I'll be more than happy to post the result here...


Yours sincerely
D

[emily655321]

That's funny; I've never seen any of the Elm Street movies (believe it or not), but the first thought I had when I heard the quote was "the Black Cat." Perhaps I've just heard it repeated before, but I definitely thought I remembered it from Poe. I'll take a look back through a couple that seem to ring a bell. Maybe I've just been subliminally brainwashed into believing it's Edgar's. :D Well, I'll find out anyway.

[emily655321]

Well, definitely not the Black Cat, or Pit and the Pendulum, or Eleonora. I finally just googled it, and the quote is actually two quotes that are attributed respectively to Poe AND Longfellow. The credit is never swapped between the two.

Poe is credited for, "Sleep, those little slices of death. How I loathe them."
Longfellow for, "Sleep... Oh! how I loathe those little slices of death."

It's my hunch that Longfellow wrote it first, and Poe alluded to the line in one of his stories. Or perhaps the phrase was commonly repeated already, and it just stuck in the back of his mind, and he wrote it without realizing he was plagiarizing. That happens to me sometimes. :p I don't know. I'm going to keep my eye out for it next time I read something by either guy.

[Demogorgon]

Thanks for the answer!

The problem is that I have search through (computer search i.e) the complete works of Poe (all poems, novels, short stories, long stories, some material that seemed to be scripts for different plays, some letters and articles) and I can't seem to find this sentence or anything even similar to the qoute.

My own theory is that the scripwriters wanted to use it in the ingress of Elm Street III and probably thought it would be more scary if Edgar Allan Poe wrote it, and then it spread all over the world.

I asked a well known Poe expert (not sure if I can qoute him and use his name) about it and he didn't recognice it at all. I even wrote Wes Craven (co-writer of NOES III and writer/director of the first) on his homepage, but no answer so far.

I really like your tagline by the way...
Best regards Mr D

[goldberg]

hi...

nice details..

but im not getting the concept exactly, so can u plz add some more details...

or just post some links regarding this....

that may b helpful for me

[Bitterfly]

I translated the phrase into French, fed it to Google, and the answer came up: Longfellow!!
Poe often pinched things from other writers (I remember finding a non-attributed excerpt from Locke in Ligeia, I think).

[Demogorgon]

I translated the phrase into French, fed it to Google, and the answer came up: Longfellow!!


That might be, but there is a lot of questionable and unreliable facts and misconceptions presented as facts found on the internet by just using google.

I have searched through the complete works of Poe for the word "slice" and then for the word "death" in order to find something even remotely like the original quote, and the same thing with Longfellow.

The words "death" and "slice" (the plural "s" in slices excluded in search for covering all possible variations) appear in some expressions, but in completly different parts in the texts. That goes for both Poe and Longfellow.

This case is closed as far as I concerned, and the closest thing I've seen of possible origin is a suggestion that the expression "slices of death" is a travesty or paraphrasing of the french phrase "tranches de la vie" (lit. "slices of life"), a common phrase describing concepts of certain theater plays and arts.

The only reliable documented source of first use so far is the following:

The Columbia World of Quotations 1996
Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959

"I don’t sleep. I hate those little slices of death."

ATTRIBUTION:
Journey to the Center of the Earth 1959 (based on the novel by Jules Verne)
Walter Reisch (1903–1963), Austrian screenwriter, Charles Brackett (1892–1969), U.S. and Henry Levin.
The character Count Saknussemm (Thayer David) at the edge of the sea, explaining to Lindenbrook why he isn’t resting.

This is easy to confirm: just buy/rent the movie and listen to what Count Saknussem has to say at the edge of the underworld sea.

Best regards everyone, and sweet, sweet dreams....

[JimShi]

We had this same question come up when I was in college. The answer is that it wasn't written by either poet. It was said, by Poe, in answer to a question posed to him by a fellow writer I believe it was. Poe was asked something like "When do you find the time to sleep?" or something to that affect. Please forgive me if I don't have the details just right, but college was a LONG time ago. ;)

[Hawkman]

It's a gnarly one this. I can find similar references going back as far as Homer.

"Еυθ Υπυψ ξύμβλητο κασιγνήτψ θανάτοιο"
Where he falls with sleep, brother of death.

The Illiad 14 231.

Ovid:

"Stulte, quid est somnus, gelidæ nisi mortis imago? Longa quiescendi tempora fata dabunt."

"Fool, what is sleep but the likeness of icy death? The fates shall give us a long period of rest." (Amorum, Book 2, 10, 40)


"Sleep, but a short death; death but a longer sleep." Fletcher, Phineas, BD (1582-1650)
Apollyonists. Canto 1 St. 6.

Tennyson: In Memorium - (1850) "Sleep kinsman thou to death and trance..." Canto 71.

One must surmise that it is just an evolution of a very ancient poetical thought.

[imarion]

Author unknown, various wordings commonly attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Audio books torrents (http://www.btscene.eu/subcat/id/22/)

[Jomiller]

• In my opinion, this post contents several things that can be referred as a good theory, very great posting.

Poe is the best writter, I reading every night with a good italian coffee (http://www.italiacoffee.com.au/)

[myhealth]

"Oh my, but art is long / and our life is fleeting."
___________
do you know who said that?