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
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?
Poe uses alliteration in many of the lines in this poem. The alliteration with the words I have colored in red help the flow of the poem. It compliments the rhyme scheme to give the poem a better rhythm. The alliteration also retain's the reader's attention. As in line 15, the repeated g in "grains" and "golden" calls to the reader's attention much better than if "yellow" was substituted for "golden." Not only would this be less representive of the color of the sand but the rhythm would seem off and the attention of the reader would not catch from hearing a color more often heard.
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?
Poe uses alliteration in many of the lines in this poem. The alliteration with the words I have colored in red help the flow of the poem. It compliments the rhyme scheme to give the poem a better rhythm. The alliteration also retain's the reader's attention. As in line 15, the repeated g in "grains" and "golden" calls to the reader's attention much better than if "yellow" was substituted for "golden." Not only would this be less representive of the color of the sand but the rhythm would seem off and the attention of the reader would not catch from hearing a color more often heard.