January 19, 2014
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? 
 
 
 

Today's poem is in the public domain.

About This Poem 

Representative of Poe's later work, "A Dream Within a Dream" is a revised version of a poem Poe originally composed in the 1820s. It is considered one of the poet's finest shorter poems. In an article published in 1849, Poe wrote, "It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream." 

Poetry by Poe



 

Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems

(Maplewood Books, 2013) 

 

 

 

 

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Edgar Allan Poe was born 205 years ago today, in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe's work as an editor, poet, and critic had a profound impact on American and international literature, and his short stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction. Poe died on October 7, 1849.

 


Related Poems
by George Gordon Byron 
it was a dream  
by Lucille Clifton 
by Margaret Atwood 
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