Tom Gray's Dream
"Tom Gray's Dream" is a poem written by western Illinois poet Retta M. Brown (born September 18, 1893).
Tom Gray was a farmer's son, born in Indiana on November 27, 1852, whose family moved to Mercer County, Illinois. During a drunken stupor, he experienced a frightening dream that moved him to cease alcohol abuse. His niece, Retta M. Brown, wrote the poem and immortalized the nightmare. Alcohol recovery groups and certain churches have widely circulated the poem, usually without attribution.
Read more about Tom Gray's Dream: Text
Famous quotes containing the words gray dream, tom, gray and/or dream:
“Bookworm, break this sloth urbane;
A greater spirit bids thee forth
Than the gray dreams which thee detain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The palsy plagues my pulses”
—Unknown. Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song (l. 37)
“Chrome: her pretty childface smooth as steel, with eyes that would have been at home at the bottom of some deep Atlantic trench, cold gray eyes that lived under terrible pressure. They say she cooked her own cancers for people who crossed her, rococo custom variations that took years to kill you.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“Reagan was a flesh and blood version of any other mute national emblem, say the Statue of Liberty. Everyone knows what she represents, but no one would dream of asking her opinion.”
—Simon Hoggart (b. 1946)