A Dream Within A Dream Analysis

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?

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I believe that the dreams symbolize something without a meaning but with a begining and an end.The first dream is human life.The second dream is the beginning and end of all existence.I think Poe is exlaining his view that no matter what we do, in the end nothing will matter.That everything has its end and that in its end it completely demeans the whole presence of life.

| Posted on 2009-11-21 | by a guest

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Dream within a dream
I believe Poe is reffering to subjective reality, the conception that reality is a projection of our thoughts...we are all one consciousness, condensed energy experiencing itself subjectively...
Bill Hicks and Tool speak of subjective reality

| Posted on 2009-11-15 | by a guest

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i really like this poem,.
it seems like he istalking ABOUT Somone and him wanting to go back orchanging something in life.
maybe, he wrote this about his wife, or someone that he lostin life. or maybe he made it seem like he was in some mood. ( :

| Posted on 2009-11-11 | by a guest

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someone said that this peom was writen in 1927, but that is not ture. it was writen in 1850. she died 3 years before he wrote this poem so i think it has to do with his wife dieing.

| Posted on 2009-10-29 | by a guest

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Every one thinks of this as a dark poem, but I think it's quite optimistic, or at least my view of it. I have allways read it as if his childhood is the dream and his life is the other. You can't hold on to you're childhood. I think this since in his poems about his wife, she often seems very youthfull, I think that's the golden sand. Also think why he says allthat we see or seem, instead of some of what we see or seem, is because the year after we feel we're old, we think that year is when we're young. He sees the virtues in youth and ignorance.

| Posted on 2009-10-17 | by a guest

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I definately believe this poem illustrates the negative side of life... realizing that you cant change certain things "oh god can i not save one from the pitiless wave"... using this line as a metaphor to show how weak we are to the bigger negative side of life...perhaps us being the grains of sand and the waves being life. Than asking "is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream?" so many different perceptions on what exactly that could mean... i always looked at it like he was in disbelief as to how scary things could be, that it must all be a dream. In his case, perhaps he's being a pessimist because of his wife's death.

| Posted on 2009-10-14 | by a guest

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I beleive that this poem is about the big picture that a higher being has for us for we dream but we are in his dream

| Posted on 2009-10-01 | by a guest

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I belive this poem is about his dreams of his wife who died from a dieseas in her sleep she is living him in the night. If you read Annabel Lee it says that the angels enyed her and took her in the night. And he wrote that for his wife, Virginia who died from a very common dieseas that also killed his mother and step mother. This woman, he truly cared about. In the poem Annabel Lee he even says he lies by her grave and sleeps with her in the night. This may not be true it is a poem he may have just written this for the drama. Well, getting back to the poem this is actually about, he probably wrote this about his wife who he misses he went to sleep with her and woke up without her. He probably can't stop think about her. It is probably a shock and he thinks it has to be a dream.

| Posted on 2009-09-30 | by a guest

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POE'S WRITING STYLE IS EERIE, MYSTERIOUS, AND SOMETIMES A LITTLE FREAKY, BUT IT'S GREAT WRITING ALL THE SAME. I FEEL THAT THIS POEM IS ABOUT THE DREAMS WE HAVE IN LIFE. POE IS LETTING US KNOW THROUGH THIS POEM THAT WE MIGHT FEEL THAT WE HAVE TO LET OUR DRAMS SLIP TO PLEASE OTHERS, BUT TO STICK TO WHAT WE BELIEVE AND FEEL INSIDE.

| Posted on 2009-09-27 | by a guest

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can i just say i researched Egar Allan Poe , as im in year 7 and i am doing a poetic analysis of this poem.
and the information i found out was that he wrote this after his wife passed away from a bursted blood vessel, or something similar
thought it might make things a bit ess sketchy on the intention behind this poem (:

| Posted on 2009-09-09 | by a guest

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A dream within a dream.... hmm, well to me i think this poem is a about a guy who dreams of living the good life, or maybe even wanting to accomplish a goal in life. then the guy realizes that he cant obtain his dream and it slips away before his eyes
Dev08

| Posted on 2009-07-21 | by a guest

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i think you're maybe over-thinking things a bit. why is this poem a question of the metaphysical to you all? "it's about life and dreams and reality..."
to me, this poem is about leaving a girlfriend in the night. "in parting from you now" seems to suggest to me that HE'S the one who is leaving. "in a night or in a day / in a vision or in none" shows his internal conversation about leaving her in the middle of the night, or breaking up with her when the morning comes.
the second stanza about the surf tormented shore shows his internal conflict. he probably doesn't want to leave her, but for some reason he feels that he has to. but it's that moment - seeing her there sleeping, as the moonlight probably falls across her face - watching how beautiful and peaceful she looks that he wishes he could keep forever. grasping the sands of time, wanting time to stop so that he could stay in this dream with her. to continue living and loving each other.
for some reason though, he has to leave - but now, in leaving her, those reasons make less sense to him ("is all that we see or seem / but a dream within a dream?")

| Posted on 2009-07-01 | by a guest

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In this world,when we wake up from our dreamy sleep,we hope that someday
our dreams will become reality.But what if the world itself is a dream?Will everything I’ve
gathered in my hand will blow away in the wind of time leaving me weeping in the
emptiness of a dream within a dream?

| Posted on 2009-06-26 | by a guest

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This poem reflects the thought that we are never really sure the difference between reality and fantasy... Who says that this life is the life we are living? Could we not wake up into another life tomorrow? It is not hard to see that Poe is trying to show that life dwindles away but even in words one can capture the thought of what comes after what we call life...Like grains of sand time slips away but who says there is nothing in the end can we not just flip the hour glass and start again.?

| Posted on 2009-06-16 | by a guest

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Many of you had said that this poem was written in the same year of his death...but that is not true. He wrote this poem in 1827 when he was a teenager. So, this poem has nothing to do with the death of his wife, Virginia.

| Posted on 2009-05-26 | by a guest

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Many of you had said that this poem was written in the same year of his death...but that is not true. He wrote this poem in 1827 when he was a teenager. So, this poem has nothing to do with the death of his wife, Virginia.

| Posted on 2009-05-26 | by a guest

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Sometimes things are better as illusions because sometimes, people deserve more than the truth. Peace and serenity within oneself is so hard to attain, but even imagining what it would be like could be the closest you'll ever get.
| Posted on 2009-05-05 | by a guest
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i think this poem means that he likes this girl and she is the one that he has been dreaming about. but the girl doesn't like him so he loses that dream. and he's saying that if he doesn't get this girl he will die. the sand represents love which he cannot get.
~Jennie Grace~
| Posted on 2009-05-04 | by a guest
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Edgar allan poe is one my favorite writers.The Grains of sand is about his loved ones that have slipped away or have disapeared such as his wife Virginia poe who had died.He wrote this poem the same year that he died so he may have known that he was going to die.afterall his death is still a mystery,it may have been suicide and this was his plan to kill himself and that the grains of sand are like an hour glass telling us that his life time is running out.-Haines
| Posted on 2009-04-30 | by a guest
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So basically as most have said and as I have interpretted for myself:
"And in parting from you now", He is saying goodbye before he dies because he knows he will because that is the end for everyone. "if hope has flown away.. is it therefore the less gone?" saying that if hope has left, there never really was any in the first place. The shore he is standing on is between life and death, there is supposedly a shore/ river in Hades that the dead go. So as he stands there he is trying to hold onto time either for himself or for ones he loves who are dying. sand is a double metaphore. he cant grasp time it keeps going as if he is in a dream like state, its going by way too fast and he just wants to hold on for a second. Also, the sand representing people- "Can I not save one from the pitiless waves?" he wants to save loved ones from dying, being swept away by death, at least for alittle awhile (going back to time and wishing it wasn't going so fast) He wants to grasp time and have some control over it but he cant so for once he is calling out to God who has the power to stop time and bring people back from the dead. anyways he ends the poem with a question unlike earlier when he said that line, it was a statement of fact. He questions it because he is saying its not a dream, it is a reality. what he is seeing is may feel like a dream and he may wish it was but now he realizes the truth in what is going on. and finally is accepting it as reality and in a way is accepting death and his definite end
Sincerely,
Steph
| Posted on 2009-04-16 | by a guest
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Edgar Allen Poe was kinda wierd. but yeahh... um... this writing is kinda like... confusing... all of his are... like...wow. but um... yea thats what i think.... so... um.... yeah. Your welcom.... um.... bye everyone.... i hoped this helped.
-Samantha
| Posted on 2009-04-14 | by a guest
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“A Dream within a Dream” covers a topic of utmost abstraction. Poe claims that “all that we see or seem / is but a dream within a dream.” I believe the poem is saying that the way see the world, and ourselves, is merely a differential of perception. Because Poe was writing about something idealistic he needed something tangible to relate his idea to. A dream is something everyone has experienced, and this provides a reference, or anchor, for the reader. A dream is a suitable reference because it is impossible to physically “see” a dream. However, everyone experiences dreams and relates distinct aspects of these dreams to a physical reality. This is Poe’s definition of perception. Poe continues to use a metaphor comparing a small, simple, concept to a grain of sand. He asks, “Oh God! can I not save / one from the pitiless wave?” This statement expands on his idea of a mentally synthesized physical reality. The simple things we assume to be true – the sky is blue, one plus one equals two – are “true” because we know them to be that way. But what is blue? The number “two” is merely something we use to represent something else. “O God! can I not grasp / them with a tighter clasp?” asks if there is any way to understand these aspects of our life, or if everything we know is simply created by our mind. Perhaps everything we know is simply A Dream within a Dream.
Tanor Bonin
| Posted on 2009-04-05 | by a guest
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Poe is a deep writer. This poem was written the same year he died. This could possibly mean that he knew he was going to die. In the first stanza, he is asking to say good bye even though others disapproved of his carreer choice. The second is like his last plea for life and that he is running out time and it gives the illusion of an hourglass which could mean that he lost all his oppurtunities of life. Golden sands could mean the treasure of HIS life has run out.
-a teacher
| Posted on 2009-04-01 | by a guest
.: :.
This poem is about the author losing his loved one and not being able to keep her.Also, it may be interpreted that the "golden sand" is an allusion to the authors loved ones, and that each is inevitably swept away by death (the pitiless wave), no matter how tight a clasp the author tries to retain them with.
| Posted on 2009-03-25 | by a guest
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Poe was a person who lived his whole life in a "twilight zone". He saw -under the influence- great thoughts and wrote them down, when his instincts were at his best...
So his life was in a way "A dream within a dream".
Because of his personal suffering and parting af his loved once...he just could not see it "another" way...
He wanted to live his life, but death always came on his way.
In a way he was a dying man...
Because when all hope is lost, you're already dying...
| Posted on 2009-03-24 | by a guest
.: :.
i have read some peoples thoughts about this poem... i thought it was about people who die and him not being able to control it but on the other hand it could be time that is passing him by. the only thing that makes me feel as if this is about people who have died and it seeming as if hes dreaming because its to much to absorb and deal with is at the beginning he is talking about someone leaving
| Posted on 2009-03-19 | by a guest
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I think that the poet is tricking us twice and saying that he really is in a dream within a dream, but he isent really talking abuot the hope he has but talking about the dream within a dream he has had he wants us to think its about one thing thats not the literal but its two the 3rd degree and somthing totally different than the literal and interperative
| Posted on 2009-03-18 | by a guest
.: :.
I think that the poet is tricking us twice and saying that he really is in a dream within a dream, but he isent really talking abuot the hope he has but talking about the dream within a dream he has had he wants us to think its about one thing thats not the literal but its two the 3rd degree and somthing totally different than the literal and interperative
| Posted on 2009-03-18 | by a guest
.: :.
I like this poem because it seems to tell of a man who is losing time. The grains of sand are like the sand in an hour glass and time is running out and he is losing everything. He can’t grab them or hold any in his hand because it just runs through his fingers. To him everything seems surreal and like a dream, or a dream within a dream. Some speculate that Mr. Poe is speaking of his young wife who died of tuberculosis, others break it down into the fact of life being to good to be true (a dream) at time, and in an instant being so overwhelming or depressing (within a dream). Take it how you will but to me it seems like a persons desperate plight, to hold on to the past.
| Posted on 2009-03-17 | by a guest
.: :.
Edgar Allen Poe is my favorite poet and he writes a lot of r

| Posted on 2009-05-10 | by a guest

.: :.

Sometimes things are better as illusions because sometimes, people deserve more than the truth. Peace and serenity within oneself is so hard to attain, but even imagining what it would be like could be the closest you'll ever get.

| Posted on 2009-05-05 | by a guest

.: :.

i think this poem means that he likes this girl and she is the one that he has been dreaming about. but the girl doesn't like him so he loses that dream. and he's saying that if he doesn't get this girl he will die. the sand represents love which he cannot get.
~Jennie Grace~

| Posted on 2009-05-04 | by a guest

.: :.

Edgar allan poe is one my favorite writers.The Grains of sand is about his loved ones that have slipped away or have disapeared such as his wife Virginia poe who had died.He wrote this poem the same year that he died so he may have known that he was going to die.afterall his death is still a mystery,it may have been suicide and this was his plan to kill himself and that the grains of sand are like an hour glass telling us that his life time is running out.-Haines

| Posted on 2009-04-30 | by a guest

.: :.

So basically as most have said and as I have interpretted for myself:
"And in parting from you now", He is saying goodbye before he dies because he knows he will because that is the end for everyone. "if hope has flown away.. is it therefore the less gone?" saying that if hope has left, there never really was any in the first place. The shore he is standing on is between life and death, there is supposedly a shore/ river in Hades that the dead go. So as he stands there he is trying to hold onto time either for himself or for ones he loves who are dying. sand is a double metaphore. he cant grasp time it keeps going as if he is in a dream like state, its going by way too fast and he just wants to hold on for a second. Also, the sand representing people- "Can I not save one from the pitiless waves?" he wants to save loved ones from dying, being swept away by death, at least for alittle awhile (going back to time and wishing it wasn't going so fast) He wants to grasp time and have some control over it but he cant so for once he is calling out to God who has the power to stop time and bring people back from the dead. anyways he ends the poem with a question unlike earlier when he said that line, it was a statement of fact. He questions it because he is saying its not a dream, it is a reality. what he is seeing is may feel like a dream and he may wish it was but now he realizes the truth in what is going on. and finally is accepting it as reality and in a way is accepting death and his definite end
Sincerely,
Steph

| Posted on 2009-04-16 | by a guest

.: :.

Edgar Allen Poe was kinda wierd. but yeahh... um... this writing is kinda like... confusing... all of his are... like...wow. but um... yea thats what i think.... so... um.... yeah. Your welcom.... um.... bye everyone.... i hoped this helped.
-Samantha

| Posted on 2009-04-14 | by a guest

.: :.

“A Dream within a Dream” covers a topic of utmost abstraction. Poe claims that “all that we see or seem / is but a dream within a dream.” I believe the poem is saying that the way see the world, and ourselves, is merely a differential of perception. Because Poe was writing about something idealistic he needed something tangible to relate his idea to. A dream is something everyone has experienced, and this provides a reference, or anchor, for the reader. A dream is a suitable reference because it is impossible to physically “see” a dream. However, everyone experiences dreams and relates distinct aspects of these dreams to a physical reality. This is Poe’s definition of perception. Poe continues to use a metaphor comparing a small, simple, concept to a grain of sand. He asks, “Oh God! can I not save / one from the pitiless wave?” This statement expands on his idea of a mentally synthesized physical reality. The simple things we assume to be true – the sky is blue, one plus one equals two – are “true” because we know them to be that way. But what is blue? The number “two” is merely something we use to represent something else. “O God! can I not grasp / them with a tighter clasp?” asks if there is any way to understand these aspects of our life, or if everything we know is simply created by our mind. Perhaps everything we know is simply A Dream within a Dream.
Tanor Bonin

| Posted on 2009-04-05 | by a guest

.: :.

Poe is a deep writer. This poem was written the same year he died. This could possibly mean that he knew he was going to die. In the first stanza, he is asking to say good bye even though others disapproved of his carreer choice. The second is like his last plea for life and that he is running out time and it gives the illusion of an hourglass which could mean that he lost all his oppurtunities of life. Golden sands could mean the treasure of HIS life has run out.
-a teacher

| Posted on 2009-04-01 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem is about the author losing his loved one and not being able to keep her.Also, it may be interpreted that the "golden sand" is an allusion to the authors loved ones, and that each is inevitably swept away by death (the pitiless wave), no matter how tight a clasp the author tries to retain them with.

| Posted on 2009-03-25 | by a guest

.: :.

Poe was a person who lived his whole life in a "twilight zone". He saw -under the influence- great thoughts and wrote them down, when his instincts were at his best...
So his life was in a way "A dream within a dream".
Because of his personal suffering and parting af his loved once...he just could not see it "another" way...
He wanted to live his life, but death always came on his way.
In a way he was a dying man...
Because when all hope is lost, you're already dying...

| Posted on 2009-03-24 | by a guest

.: :.

i have read some peoples thoughts about this poem... i thought it was about people who die and him not being able to control it but on the other hand it could be time that is passing him by. the only thing that makes me feel as if this is about people who have died and it seeming as if hes dreaming because its to much to absorb and deal with is at the beginning he is talking about someone leaving

| Posted on 2009-03-19 | by a guest

.: :.

I think that the poet is tricking us twice and saying that he really is in a dream within a dream, but he isent really talking abuot the hope he has but talking about the dream within a dream he has had he wants us to think its about one thing thats not the literal but its two the 3rd degree and somthing totally different than the literal and interperative

| Posted on 2009-03-18 | by a guest

.: :.

I think that the poet is tricking us twice and saying that he really is in a dream within a dream, but he isent really talking abuot the hope he has but talking about the dream within a dream he has had he wants us to think its about one thing thats not the literal but its two the 3rd degree and somthing totally different than the literal and interperative

| Posted on 2009-03-18 | by a guest

.: :.

I like this poem because it seems to tell of a man who is losing time. The grains of sand are like the sand in an hour glass and time is running out and he is losing everything. He can’t grab them or hold any in his hand because it just runs through his fingers. To him everything seems surreal and like a dream, or a dream within a dream. Some speculate that Mr. Poe is speaking of his young wife who died of tuberculosis, others break it down into the fact of life being to good to be true (a dream) at time, and in an instant being so overwhelming or depressing (within a dream). Take it how you will but to me it seems like a persons desperate plight, to hold on to the past.

| Posted on 2009-03-17 | by a guest

.: :.

Edgar Allen Poe is my favorite poet and he writes a lot of really deep stuff. This writting of his is not so much as dark and dreery as some of his others on the outside but on the inside he is spreaking of something very dark. That being death itself. When Poe speaks of the hourglass he is saying that there are so few grains left inside it and that the clock is ticking on his life as he treis to hold on to the grains but cannot stop them from falling out of his hands.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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Poe was maeeied to his 13 year old cousin who died to turbercilousis
so he may have written this poem to portray his feelings of unhappieness

| Posted on 2009-03-01 | by a guest

.: :.

One of my all time favorites of Poe...
The hourglass in stanza two symbolizes an hourglass:
Poe is trying to "grasp" the last few grains of sand because he is dying. he wants to hold on to those last few moments.
One line in stanza one really stands out to me..
"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?"
I think Poe is saying that if all hope is gone, is there any less than there was in the first place? Poe is basically saying there's no hope for us; we're all going to die in the end and there is nothing we can do about it. Sad yes, but all of Poe's poems are typically based off the same theme.
A ~*BASIC SUMMARY*~ of the poem would be this:
Reality vs. dreams, hope vs. reality..
Even though man can not escape the cold grasp of death, he still hopes. Whether that hope is real or just a dream, he hopes. Poe wrote this when he was near his deathbed, and even though his whole life he was telling himself that death is merely a different type of life, and that there is nothing to be apathetic about, he still hopes to hold on to the "last grains of sand". Everyone hopes, everyone dies. its the circle of live, death, and dreams.

| Posted on 2009-02-23 | by a guest

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i think poe shoulve slept with more women to enjoy life more

| Posted on 2009-02-16 | by a guest

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I just noticed the deep metaphor of the sand slipping through his fingers being time getting away from him and him trying to just catch one "grain" (minute or hour) and wishing that he could just keep it for eternal life but he knows it is not possible and we will all fall to the see. the sand is like in an old fasioned timer thingy.

| Posted on 2009-02-13 | by a guest

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If Poe thought that nothing in life matters, he was very wrong. Just look at the impact he has made on modern poetry. Thats something that does remain.

| Posted on 2009-02-05 | by a guest

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It may seem odd, but my initial thoughts were that perhaps the first stanza was the viewpoint of someone in Poe's family...wife, mother, or other. I found that they were speaking to Poe directly, giving him their own insight from beyond the grave. Poe must have seen their ghostly form, or perhaps the kiss was metaphorical. Then, in the second stanza, Poe tries to figure out what it means...the fickleness of life and why it escapes us. Well, just another view to consider.

| Posted on 2009-01-30 | by a guest

.: :.

It may seem odd, but my initial thoughts were that perhaps the first stanza was the viewpoint of someone in Poe's family...wife, mother, or other. I found that they were speaking to Poe directly, giving him their own insight from beyond the grave. Poe must have seen their ghostly form, or perhaps the kiss was metaphorical. Then, in the second stanza, Poe tries to figure out what it means...the fickleness of life and why it escapes us. Well, just another view to consider.

| Posted on 2009-01-30 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem may be interpreted in many, many ways. There is no correct answer, for Poe did not reveal its exact meaning.

| Posted on 2009-01-21 | by a guest

.: :.

Poetry, like music or anything of its type, can be interpreted differently by everyone. That's one of the many ways it is so beautiful.
With that aside, I believe Poe is talking about how everything can seem so unreal. Like maybe his love for his dead wife. After he loses her, he questions life itself. If it is gone now, was it ever there? He also talks about how he tries to hold on to his love for her, but like sand it slips between his fingers. He cries and wonders why he can't have a stronger grasp on this, to save it from the bottomless ocean (death) that it is falling to. He wonders, ultimately, if everything we are is really so. "Is everything we see and seem, but a dream within a dream?"

| Posted on 2009-01-13 | by a guest