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?
The diction in A Dream within a Dream emphasizes the feeling of the peom. The words"tormented" and "pitiless"
helps convey that the narrator is feeling helpless and despaired. The feeling is also showed in line 18, "While I weep, while I weep!" These terms are abstract. A Dream within a Dream is written with a combination of abstract and concrete terms. The concrete terms include "sand" in line 15 and "fingers" in line 17. Most of the language is abstract.
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?
The diction in A Dream within a Dream emphasizes the feeling of the peom. The words"tormented" and "pitiless"
helps convey that the narrator is feeling helpless and despaired. The feeling is also showed in line 18, "While I weep, while I weep!" These terms are abstract. A Dream within a Dream is written with a combination of abstract and concrete terms. The concrete terms include "sand" in line 15 and "fingers" in line 17. Most of the language is abstract.