The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (1859)/Volume 2/A Dream within a Dream - Wikisource, the free online library
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A Dream Within a Dream
- The speaker acknowledges a parting and validates the perception that their life has been nothing more than a dream.
- The poem explores the fleeting nature of hope, questioning if the manner of its disappearance changes the reality of its loss.
- The central metaphor shifts to a 'surf-tormented shore' where the speaker attempts to hold onto grains of golden sand.
- There is a profound sense of helplessness as the sand slips through the speaker's fingers into the sea despite their desperate efforts.
- The speaker cries out to God in frustration over the inability to save even a single grain from the 'pitiless wave.'
- The text concludes with a haunting existential question, suggesting that all reality might be an illusion inside another illusion.
All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM. Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow— You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand— How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep—while I weep! O God! can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?
A Dream Within a Dream
- The speaker struggles to hold grains of golden sand on a surf-tormented shore, but they slip through his fingers into the sea.
- He ends by wondering whether all reality may be only a dream within another dream.
All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.