A Dream Within A Dream- Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

The Poem

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? 

Questions and Answers-

1. How are the two stanzas in the poem linked to one-another?

    A- “A Dream within A Dream” was written by Edgar Allen Poe in the same year that he died. Poe had a very tormentful life, having lost his parents, his wife, seen much of his literary career dismissed to the margins by his colleagues; so much that by the time he reached the twilight of his life, he was reduced to the state of an impoverished drunk. His life was filled with more tragedies than his writings could ever express. This poem consisting of two stanzas is a remarkable expression of his mental state.

The first stanza is the narrator’s description of him parting from his lover while the second stanza is in a more self-reflective tone. Despite the apparent differences between the two stanzas, they are linked through the ironic similarity of their transient natures.

The first imagery is that of the narrator kissing his beloved on her brow as he parts with her. The parting has an eerie sense of finality to it, as if the couple has just decided to end the relationship. While parting, the narrator accepts the fact that the time he spent with his better half was like a dream come true. He agrees with her in saying that they spent the most cherished moments together. But now his sorrows have overpowered him, and he asks that does it matter for how long they were together, since how long they dreamt of being together, or in other rather pessimistic words, how long did it take for the hope to fly away, the hope that they might pull it back together? When a man reaches a point in which his past desires,  dreams, and ambitions are no longer feasible goals for him to pursue, should it matter by what means or length these hopes have left, since they are presently nothing more but mere memories anyway?  Is it not true that this will eventually be the fate of all our current pursuits, expectations and hopes?  And if so, is there any use in pursuing one’s hopes to begin with?

               
                “All that we see or seem

                 Is but a dream within a dream.”

Every matter, work, or relationship we dedicate ourselves to will eventually end one day, irrespective of success or failure, will eventually fade out of our thoughts with time, and will become a distant, faint memory in our minds. And eventually as time passes and age takes its toll, our mind will not be able to comprehend whether the incident actually happened or it was just a mere dream. This life is unreal. We are living in a dream. And what we see or what seems to be-- all the hopes, expectations, and fantasies a man thinks of – is “but a dream within a dream”.  The first stanza is the sort of a message or self-reflection a dying man might present to ease the misfortunes that have haunted his life.

The imagery of the second stanza is that of the poet standing at the shore of an unruly sea. The shore represents his life which is has been tormented by the unforgiving tormenting waves that symbolize the troubles and pangs that his life has been scarred with. The use of “roar” and “surf-tormented” brings up images of anguish that the poet has gone through. He is approaching his death and having lost everything in life all that he has to comfort him are his memories. The poet says that he holds within his hand “grains of golden sand” which, even though he has very few of them, not even a handful, creep through his fingers and slip away from him to the ground while he weeps in futility not able to hold back even a single golden grain. The handful golden grains of sand represent the handful memories which are the only comfort he has to cherish him in the final years of his life. Yet he is unable to recall them and the memories seem to be fading away in the distant as he ages, until they seem to be nothing more than a dream. He weeps and cries and exclaims rhetorically that isn’t there a single golden grain, a single memory that he can hold on to, that would comfort him when he is on his death bed? Can he not save a single memory from the tests of the pitiless Time and the phantoms of his past? For someone like Edgar Allen Poe, who at this point in his life had nothing more to hold onto but his dreams–his fading memories–nothing would have been more desirable than the reassurance that this sole valuable of his was more than a mere intangible thought. He finishes off with the same reflection that the Life we live is unreal. It might even be a dream; and what we see or seems to be, be nothing more than “A Dream within A Dream”.

Both the stanzas show the anguish and troubles that Poe has gone through in his life. Though the context of the stanzas may differ, both of them demonstrate a desperate Poe trying his best to hold on to the last bits of comfort he has in his life which in the first stanza is his relationship with his beloved, while in the second stanza it is the golden memories of his life. Both the stanzas are allusions to the basic theme of the poem of what we see in Life being a dream within a dream, the former being rather individualistic and centered on a single incident, while the latter being rather self-reflective and depicting the narrator’s life and state of mind in a general and broader way.

2. “Is all that we see But a dream within a dream.” Elaborate.
A- “A Dream within A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe is a self-reflective poem written by him at the twilight of his life. The poem has the tone of a man who has lost everything in life and fittingly so since Poe had a very troubled life. He passed away merely at the age of 49 but even in that span of time his life saw more tragedies than his poems can ever express.

The main theme of poem is Poe’s rhetorical expression of the question that whether if whatever we see or seems to be, is nothing more than a dream within a dream? What if this life itself is a dream? The poet having lost everything in life expresses the blatant futility of one’s hopes and expectations. He says that whatever we expect, hope or pursuit in our life, once over becomes nothing more than a distinct memory in our lives, so faint ultimately that we are not able to distinguish them from our dreams.

       
The first stanza is the narrator’s description of him parting from his lover while the second stanza is in a more self-reflective tone. Despite the apparent differences between the two stanzas, they are linked through the ironic similarity of their transient natures.

The first imagery is that of the narrator kissing his beloved on her brow as he parts with her. The parting has an eerie sense of finality to it, as if the couple has just decided to end the relationship. While parting, the narrator accepts the fact that the time he spent with his better half was like a dream come true. He agrees with her in saying that they spent the most cherished moments together. But now his sorrows have overpowered him, and he asks that does it matter for how long they were together, since how long they dreamt of being together, or in other rather pessimistic words, how long did it take for the hope to fly away, the hope that they might pull it back together? When a man reaches a point in which his past desires,  dreams, and ambitions are no longer feasible goals for him to pursue, should it matter by what means or length these hopes have left, since they are presently nothing more but mere memories anyway?  Is it not true that this will eventually be the fate of all our current pursuits, expectations and hopes?  And if so, is there any use in pursuing one’s hopes to begin with?

              
                “All that we see or seem

                 Is but a dream within a dream.”

Every matter, work, or relationship we dedicate ourselves to will eventually end one day, irrespective of success or failure, will eventually fade out of our thoughts with time, and will become a distant, faint memory in our minds. And eventually as time passes and age takes its toll, our mind will not be able to comprehend whether the incident actually happened or it was just a mere dream. This life is unreal. We are living in a dream. And what we see or what seems to be-- all the hopes, expectations, and fantasies a man thinks of – is “but a dream within a dream”.  The first stanza is the sort of a message or self-reflection a dying man might present to ease the misfortunes that have haunted his life.

The imagery of the second stanza is that of the poet standing at the shore of an unruly sea. The shore represents his life which is has been tormented by the unforgiving tormenting waves that symbolize the troubles and pangs that his life has been scarred with. The use of “roar” and “surf-tormented” brings up images of anguish that the poet has gone through. He is approaching his death and having lost everything in life all that he has to comfort him are his memories. The poet says that he holds within his hand “grains of golden sand” which, even though he has very few of them, not even a handful, creep through his fingers and slip away from him to the ground while he weeps in futility not able to hold back even a single golden grain. The handful golden grains of sand represent the handful memories which are the only comfort he has to cherish him in the final years of his life. Yet he is unable to recall them and the memories seem to be fading away in the distant as he ages, until they seem to be nothing more than a dream. He weeps and cries and exclaims rhetorically that isn’t there a single golden grain, a single memory that he can hold on to, that would comfort him when he is on his death bed? Can he not save a single memory from the tests of the pitiless Time and the phantoms of his past? For someone like Edgar Allen Poe, who at this point in his life had nothing more to hold onto but his dreams–his fading memories–nothing would have been more desirable than the reassurance that this sole valuable of his was more than a mere intangible thought. He finishes off with the same reflection that the Life we live is unreal. It might even be a dream; and what we see or seems to be, be nothing more than “A Dream within A Dream”.

Short Answers-

3. What do the falling grains of sand represent?

A- The poet is approaching his death and having lost everything in life all that he has to comfort him are his memories. He says that he holds within his hand “grains of golden sand” which, even though he has very few of them, not even a handful, creep through his fingers and slip away from him to the ground while he weeps in futility not able to hold back even a single golden grain. The handful golden grains of sand represent the handful memories which are the only comfort he has to cherish him in the final years of his life. Yet he is unable to recall them and the memories seem to be fading away in the distant as he ages, until they seem to be nothing more than a dream. He weeps and cries and exclaims rhetorically that isn’t there a single golden grain, a single memory that he can hold on to, that would comfort him when he is on his death bed? Can he not save a single memory from the tests of the pitiless Time and the phantoms of his past? For someone like Edgar Allen Poe, who at this point in his life had nothing more to hold onto but his dreams–his fading memories–nothing would have been more desirable than the reassurance that this sole valuable of his was more than a mere intangible thought. He finishes off with the same reflection that the Life we live is unreal. It might even be a dream; and what we see or seems to be, be nothing more than “A Dream within A Dream”.

4. Sea as setting for discussion of Death and Decay. Comment.
A- The poet is at the twilight of his life and slowly moving towards his death. He has lost everything in his life and is in a state of self-pity. He looks back upon his life and reflects upon what he has gone through and how he tries in vain to remember any of the sweet moments he spent in the past and take these golden memories with him when he is on his death bed.

The poet is standing at the shore of an unruly sea. The shore represents his life which is has been tormented by the unforgiving tormenting waves that symbolize the troubles and pangs that his life has been scarred with. The use of “roar” and “surf-tormented” brings up images of anguish that the poet has gone through. He is approaching his death and having lost everything in life all that he has to comfort him are his memories. The poet says that he holds within his hand “grains of golden sand” which, even though he has very few of them, not even a handful, creep through his fingers and slip away from him to the ground while he weeps in futility not able to hold back even a single golden grain. The handful golden grains of sand represent the handful memories which are the only comfort he has to cherish him in the final years of his life. Yet he is unable to recall them and the memories seem to be fading away in the distant as he ages, until they seem to be nothing more than a dream. He weeps and cries and exclaims rhetorically that isn’t there a single golden grain, a single memory that he can hold on to, that would comfort him when he is on his death bed? Can he not save a single memory from the tests of the pitiless Time and the phantoms of his past? For someone like Edgar Allen Poe, who at this point in his life had nothing more to hold onto but his dreams–his fading memories–nothing would have been more desirable than the reassurance that this sole valuable of his was more than a mere intangible thought. He finishes off with the same reflection that the Life we live is unreal. It might even be a dream; and what we see or seems to be, be nothing more than “A Dream within A Dream”.