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?
I think everyone has his first love or first dream,but it didn’t come to you as expect.so we might sign of it and look for a new one.i think feeling bad of loss means you can take good care of what you own and what you will own.i don’t think everything you want you can grasp,so treasure the things you have,and you are rich.
The poem is really great at all.Actually I have already memorized some lines on this certain poem.. I salute the ever greatest poet, Edgar Allan Poe… Salamat sa pagiging inspirasyon para sa aming Pilipino.
pinche poema mas fumaroloque bueno que este wey ya esta muerto
PS: This poem was written in 1827 and Poe was born in 1809 so he was only 18. He was very physically fit and described as egotistical by some. So the theory of this poem being about him trying to hang on to a life slipping by seems premature. It’s true he was forced to leave his first true love around this time. She soon gave up on writing to him after they seperated and married another. Hence her love was but a dream. But he made the poem very in general on purpose. He knew it had a universal meaning. Yes all your theories are right but none of them are wide enough to encompass the whole poem. He’s saying everything is really a dream and our own projected idea of everything is but another dream within that dream.
The poem takes place (Hypothetically) after his death as he stands on the shore between here and the here-after. “kiss upon the brow” means take this little piece of wisdom. He’s probably speaking to just plain old us. What does dream within a dream mean?
Imagine someone wants to be famous. That’s thier dream.
They then discover that fame was an illusion, that it slipped away like sand in your hand. Then fame itself was but a dream, an illusion. Hence they’re dreaming of a dream. Fame then is a dream within a dream. This can be attached to endless other subjects besides fame.
ie. Money, love, art etc. It’s possible he may have been thinking in quantum physics a lifetime before the science was born.
maybe the poem is about him leaving his lover because he is doesnt want her to go through what he is going through. He questions lifes reality and why cant he save life from slipping away
this poem reaches me all the way to my soul and thats good. losing everyone you love thats sad.
I liked this poem “A Dream within a Dream” because it had rhyming words in it and it is different to other poems I have read and I liked the bit were it said “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 would recommend this Poem to a friend because it rhymes and it is about Dream within Dreams.
In the first stanza I believe that Poe is saying good-bye to a loved one. This person seems to judge Poe as a dreamer. Poe asserts that he is a dreamer and that without this characteristic life would be hopeless for him. He believes that everything around us is a “dream within a dream”. In other words he is saying that by dreaming we start believing on those dreams and eventually turn them into reality. Moreover, in this first stanza Poe repeats the ending of the last word of every two or three sentences , for example, deem and dream, away and day, and none and gone. This repetition adds rhythm to the poem and emphasizes the last word of each sentence.
In the second stanza Poe uses figurative language. In the first paragraph he illustrates himself “amid the roar” of a tormented shore, while he holds “grains of the golden sand”. The grains of sand represent the dreams that he is holding on to, while everything around him is a tormented scene, which represent the world of those who have no dreams. He continues by describing how those few “grains of sand” creep deeply within him, just as his dreams do as well. He finishes questioning God about the reality of those dreams.
I believe that Poe meant by this poem was that you can not keep grasp of a person and save from something like making the wrong choice by force, because they will soon anough fall from reach and choice something different(But it depends on the person and how they look at it. ‘Cuz I saw it many different ways when i read it so this is just one of my thoughts. Yep, yep, yep.)Well, that’s all. Bye peoples.
Hey you wrote a great poem and i expire your thoughts and how you are such a great poet.so id like to say thanks for this/and thanks for sharring it with everyone.
Although short this poem contains crucial point of edgar’s life. We all know what it was like full of grief and sorrow. He probably wanted his life to be just a dream which he could easily awake from and live his life normally
Thank you Sam for your analogy. Its refreshing to read your thoughts of Poe.
piękny wiersz. Zrozumiałam 🙂 kiedy go przetłumaczyłam na polski. Może znjade jakieśinne twoje wiersze
Translation:
Baeutiful poem. I understood when I transleted them Polish. Maybe I’ll find your different poems. If I have maid some mistake, I’m sorry… See Ya
It seems to me that Poe’s heavy rhyme works best in his longer-lined poems and poems with varied line length, “The Bridal Ballad” being an exception to this. For me, the rhyme makes the lines feel choppy and when I read them outloud, as I love to do with Poe, the sound seems to overpower the image.
This poem is quite good. In the first stanza Poe is talking about a loved one. The rest of the poem goes on to say he is living in a ” dreamworld.” this says to me that Poe has lost all passion and his life now seems meaningless. Like a dream.
This is an incredibly meaning poem. I agree fully with sam on this one. He analized this poem with amazing detail what whith the sand metaphore, and the emtire first stanza. He hase a very true and rare gift.
i think he expresses himself with the use of cannibas not alchol. marijuana just isnt socially accepted its a shame. (don’t blame me if i missspelled somethingd im stonedt)
This poem is about life and how quick death creeps upon us. Poe uses the sand to act as life when he states about how quick it creeps through his hand.
I think this poem is very sad about isn’t every thing we see nothing but a dream? It’s coo