A Dream Within a Dream

by Edgar Allen 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?

Edgar Allen Poe’s poem "A Dream Within a Dream"recognizes the impermanence of life and how time is ever fleeting. The first stanza explains how the days go by so fast they are like dreams, you cannot remember when you wake up; and if you have no hope for the conservation of time, you lose less because you are not trying to hold on to the past. The grains of sand are memories he cannot hold on to because the waves of time take them away.

Poe uses AAA, BB, CC, D, E, BB in the first stanza and a similar rhyme scheme in the second stanza to help the poem flow.Since his writing style leads the poem along so well it gives the reader a nostalgic mood and keeps them engaged throughout the poem.

It is also easy to understand, which makes it effective in proving the point of time to lasting to the reader. This makes the reader reflect on time and how their memories and days are being lost in each moment. People are always reflecting on the past and wishing for early, “good old,” days, but maybe the past should be let go, because to hold on to sand is futile.