A Dream Within a Dream
From Wikisource
| A Dream Within a Dream by |
A poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849, that questions the way one can distinguish between reality and fantasy, asking, "Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?"
|
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?
-- THE END --
for Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes. And Barbara with infinite love as I falter on the road to Ithaka
 |
This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. |
