A Dream Within a Dream

A Dream Within a Dream" is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in1849. The poem is 24 lines, divided into two stanzas. The poem questions the way one can distinguish between reality and fantasy, asking, "Isall that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?"

The poem dramatizes a confusion in watching the important things in life slip away. Realizing he cannot hold on to even one grain of sand leads to his final question that all things are a dream.

It is opined that the "golden sand" referenced in the 15th line signifies that which is to be found in an hourglass, consequently time itself. Another interpretation holds that the expression evokes an image derived from the 1848 finding of gold in California, though this is highly unlikely considering the presence of the four almost identical lines describing the sand in another poem, titled "To ——," and regarded as a blueprint to "A Dream Within a Dream," preceding its publication by two decades.

The poem was first published in the March 31, 1849 edition of a Boston-based periodical called Flag of Our Union.The same publication had only two weeks before first published Poe's short story "Hop-Frog." The next month, owner Frederick Gleason announced it could no longer pay for whatever articles and poems it published.

Refer to the author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849): was an American writer, editor, andliterary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales ofmysteryand themacabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure ofRomanticismin the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of thedetective fictiongenre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre ofscience fiction.[1]He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career

Links : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/edgar-allan-poe

A Dream Within a Dream

BY  EDGAR ALLAN POE

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 lessgone?

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

Onefrom the pitiless wave?

Isallthat we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?