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?
Originally published in 1849 by Edgar Allan Poe. Public domain.
Analysis
“A Dream within a Dream” is one of Poe’s most distilled meditations on impermanence and doubt. The poem’s first stanza acts as a farewell — personal and metaphysical — acknowledging that all human experience might be nothing more than a dream layered inside another. The repetition of “dream” dismantles any stable reality, collapsing consciousness into infinite regression. The act of parting becomes symbolic of our separation from permanence itself.
Imagery and Sound
The second stanza transforms abstraction into tactile struggle. The golden grains of sand represent fleeting moments of life — beauty slipping beyond control. Poe’s rhythmic alternation between monosyllables and pauses mirrors the futility of grasping time. The imagery of the sea, a recurring symbol of dissolution in his work, underscores the inevitability of loss. The repetition of “O God!” punctuates the rational despair with primal emotion, merging philosophy and lament.
Theme
Poe envisions human existence as a dream within the divine imagination — fragile, ephemeral, and bound by perception. The poem’s circular structure, ending as it begins, enacts the endless recurrence of doubt. The final question leaves readers suspended between awakening and annihilation.