The poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Chapter 31: A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

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About This Book

A curated volume of lyrical and narrative verse that repeatedly returns to themes of loss, mourning, and yearning for unattainable beauty. The poems rely on precise meter, inventive rhyme, and vivid gothic and dreamlike imagery to produce a haunting musicality. Selections range from intimate, tender lyrics to ornate, macabre narratives, alternating elegiac reflection with dramatic tableaux. An introductory essay and decorative illustrations frame the poems and connect their emotional intensity to the poet’s temperament and critical reception.

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?