A Dream Within A Dream - A Poem By Edgar Allan Poe

“A Dream Within a Dream” is a lyric poem that Edgar Allan Poe wrote in the final year of his life, 1849. This poem shares many of the hallmarks that have made Poe’s work so beloved. It features a tortured speaker who feels deeply unsettled by their increasing uncertainty about the nature of reality.

Transcript

A Dream Within a Dream A poem by Edgar Allan Poe 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?