A Dream Within A Dream
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
5 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?
10 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
15Grains 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
20Them 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?
Poe uses connotation with the idea of dreams. He uses the word "dream" several times and means a dream, but it calls an emotional response from the reader as he compares a dream to life. Comparing dreams to life gives life a vague appearance. People do not like to think of their lives as uncontrollable but like to try to controll their own lives. The comparison suggests that life is more vague in lines 10-11, " All that we see or seem' is but a dream within a dream," and lines 23-24,"Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?" Since this poem uses "sand" as a symbol for moments in life and the persona does not mean to actually grasp them physically in his hand, it does not have much denotation. Line 1,"Take this kiss upon the brow," may be the most denotive line. It gives an image of the man placing a kiss upon someone he loves.
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow --
You are not wrong, who deem
5 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?
10 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
15Grains 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
20Them 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?
Poe uses connotation with the idea of dreams. He uses the word "dream" several times and means a dream, but it calls an emotional response from the reader as he compares a dream to life. Comparing dreams to life gives life a vague appearance. People do not like to think of their lives as uncontrollable but like to try to controll their own lives. The comparison suggests that life is more vague in lines 10-11, " All that we see or seem' is but a dream within a dream," and lines 23-24,"Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?" Since this poem uses "sand" as a symbol for moments in life and the persona does not mean to actually grasp them physically in his hand, it does not have much denotation. Line 1,"Take this kiss upon the brow," may be the most denotive line. It gives an image of the man placing a kiss upon someone he loves.