“The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true” Edgar Allan Poe
Any help or confirmation would be much appreciated. I've yet to find a legitimate source for this quotation.
an not and in the title*
I don't know off the top, but it doesn't seem like Poe to me bacause Poe was far more general in the intent of gaining readers. That doesn't mean it isn't his. I just don't know.
Maybe ask Dark muse on here. She's a Poe enthusiast. I wouldn't know either.
Apparently it's from a poet named Ted Olsen but is commonly attributed to Poe for some reason. Here's a blog article that debunks numerous alleged Poe quotes.
http://worldofpoe.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html
Googling parts of the quote with Ted Olsen's name also turns up several instances of the quote attributed correctly, but I didn't see a title or complete poem anywhere.
I don't think it's a Poe quote because the quote is obscure, and Poe was never obscure--intricate and flowery, yes, but never obscure.
I'm not familiar with the quotation, but I think it would make better sense by changing the commas, as below:Quote:
Originally Posted by minimalist
“The ninety and nine are with dreams content, but the hope of the world made new is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.”
I'm not a Poe expert, but this is not something I'd expect him to say. Poe seems to have a high regard for dreams (along with reveries and hallucinations) for their own sake, and not too concerned about the practical matter of changing the real world to effect them.
The poem can be found at the Thingfinder blogspot.
Dreamer and Doer
by Ted Olson
It's easy enough, my friend to dream
Of Utopian worlds afar;
Where wealth and power and prowess gleam
Remote as the utmost star.
It's pleasant enough in dreams to cloak
The ugly, immediate fact —
But the wise man knows that the dream's a joke
Till yoked with the will to act!
For a dream's a drug or a dream's a goad,
Whichever you choose to make it.
One man it speeds on the upward road;
Another it lures to forsake it.
For years unnumbered the seers have told
In saga and story and song
Their marvelous dreams of an Age of Gold
Washed clean of all grief and wrong.
And ninety-nine are with dreams content.
But the hope of the world made new
Is the hundredth man who is grimly bent
On making the dream come true!