Who really said it
Poe wrote “They who dream by day” in Eleonora; “Those who” is a wording variant.
Last verified 9 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?
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Disputed wording — copy with the correction
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night” — Edgar Allan Poe, Eleonora; “Those who” is a variant of “They who” · Verbatim: “They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
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Provenance
They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Read the attribution evidenceHow we verified this
The identified English source was published before 1931 and is public domain in the United States.
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Fact-check
Poe wrote “They who dream by day” in Eleonora; “Those who” is a wording variant.
The Poe Society’s 1845 Broadway Journal transcription reads “They who,” not “Those who.” Its publication history also documents the story’s appearance in The Gift for 1842, issued in 1841. The narrator speaks this sentence; it is not a personal diary entry. Evidence ↗
Context
The sentence opens Eleonora’s reflection on imagination and perception. It is a literary narrator’s statement inside a tale, so quoting it as a personal clinical judgment by Poe would blur fiction and autobiography.
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Poe’s story transcription contains the sentence beginning “They who”.
The specialist bibliography distinguishes the 1841 Gift appearance from the 1845 revision.
Wikiquote also quotes “They who” and identifies Eleonora.
The Poe Society’s index explains the tale corpus and editions.
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The author
For writers & researchers
Eleonora, Broadway Journal, May 24, 1845 (1845).
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/those-who-dream-by-day-are-cognizant-of-many-things-which/