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
20 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?
The point of view of the poem is first person as told with the use of "me," "my," and "I." The persona of the poem is Poe himself or a young man. Line one gives the image of a man kissing the forhead of his love, "Take this kiss upon the brow." The man is talking about his life and what he is doing through the poem.
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
20 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?
The point of view of the poem is first person as told with the use of "me," "my," and "I." The persona of the poem is Poe himself or a young man. Line one gives the image of a man kissing the forhead of his love, "Take this kiss upon the brow." The man is talking about his life and what he is doing through the poem.