Primero sueño

What it is

Primero sueño ("The First Dream") is a long poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, published in 1692 in the second volume of her collected works. At 976 verses, it is her longest poem, and she said it was the only work she wrote purely for her own enjoyment.

Why it matters

The poem follows the soul as it leaves the sleeping body and tries, and fails, to grasp all human knowledge at once. Drawing on classical, Christian and Renaissance thinkers, it shows Sor Juana's deep learning in science, philosophy and theology. The scholar Octavio Paz called it entirely without parallel in Spanish literature of its time, and many see in it the questioning spirit that would later define the Enlightenment.

Look closer

• Why might Sor Juana have chosen the form of a dream to explore the limits of knowledge?
• What does the ending, where day defeats night, suggest about her view of reason?
• Why do you think she wrote this poem only for herself, unlike her other works?