It was a dance of masks and every mask was perfect because every mask was a real face and every face was areal mask so there was no mask and there was no face for there was but one dance in which there was butone mask but one true face which was the same and which was a thing without a name which changed andchanged into itself over and over. Leonard Cohen
About This Quote

In this quote from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, a genre of genre called “metaphor” is used to describe a thing that is not actually a thing at all. This reminds me of how difficult it can be to put into words what we really mean. It’s like trying to describe the color blue to someone who has never seen it, except that describing something as “metaphoric” doesn’t give us any words either. In this case, the speaker describes the sensation of being lost in thought as if he were dancing.

He describes being so lost in thought that he couldn’t remember what it was that he was thinking about. If there were a dance that was a metaphor for being lost in thought, then that dance would have no name and would just be a metaphor for being lost in thought.

Source: Beautiful Losers

Some Similar Quotes
  1. It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. - Unknown
  2. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can't get any better, it can. - Nicholas Sparks
  3. The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person. - Chuck Palahniuk
  4. Where there is love there is life. - Mahatma Gandhi
  5. It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold on to something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted.... - Henry Rollins
More Quotes By Leonard Cohen
  1. And I'll dance with you in Vienna, I'll be wearing a river's disguise. The hyacinth wild on my shouldermy mouth on the dew of your thighs. And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook, with the photographs there and the moss. And I'll yield to...
  2. ... i didn't fall in love of courseit's never up to youbut she was walking back and forthand i was passing through
  3. Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
  4. It was a dance of masks and every mask was perfect because every mask was a real face and every face was areal mask so there was no mask and there was no face for there was but one dance in which there was butone...
  5. I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat; you see I’m just another snowman standing in the rain and sleet who loved you with his frozen love, his second hand physique, with all he is and all he was a thousand...
Related Topics