poe

A Dream Within A Dream


by Edgar Allan Poe
(published 1850)




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?





for some reason i go back to poe at times to reread though i have read many times before and should be a bore. but his words seem to mean more to me each time i read.
i cant hardly put into words what it means, what it reads just hits today connecting with. may be a bit of how not able to hold tight,things will flow and go as it will. what you perceve and see may not be all there is. maybe? there is more fealing i it that dont say enuff. lol. but thats all i got i can put into words.



what does it say to you?
poe work

Yeah...I love 'Poe stuff'! Been reading him since I was very young and it always resonates. But then...that's what good poetry and strong words always do. 'They bring out strong emotion to those who read them'. What you feel today or whenever from something written is usually personal to 'you'.

'To One in Paradise' is very strong also...especially the last verse;
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams --
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.

A hint of so much more to come about besides this minute 'blink'.
my thoughts...
b.d.

My favorite poem by Poe is "Alone." ....of and "Annabelle Lee" of course.

My father started reading Poe to me before I could walk. I in turn have done so with my 2 oldest children. They say he was insane. Maybe that is why I can relate so much to him. = )

with the link i provided above i found this....

After several revisions, this poem evolved into the poem “A Dream Within A Dream.”

A dark unfathomed tide
Of interminable pride—
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision of my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it passed on:
I care not though it perish
With a thought I then did cherish.



this poem he wrote was the beginning of a dream within a dream before he revised it. speeks so much more detail of what he was trying to acheeve and say.

Lovely