The Impossible Dream (The Quest) The Impossible Dream (The Quest) "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. The song is the most popular song from the 1965 Broadway musical "Man of La Mancha" and is also featured in the 1972 film of the same name starring Peter O'Toole. The complete song is first sung by Don Quixote as he stands vigil over his armor, in response to Aldonza (Dulcinea)'s question about what he means by "following the quest". It is reprised partially three more times – the last by prisoners in a dungeon
The Dream Songs is listed on the American Academy of Poets website as one of their "Groundbreaking Books" of the 20th Century. "The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry" editors call "The Dream Songs", "[John Berryman's] major work" and they go on to note that "[the poems] form, like his friend Robert Lowell's "Notebook", a poetic journal, and represent half phantasmagorically, the changes in Berryman's mood and attitude." The dream song form consists of three stanzas, divided into six lines per stanza. The poems are in free verse with irregular rhyme schemes. The songs are all numbered but only some of them have individual