[1716] A Dream Within a Dream

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?.

    -- Edgar Allan Poe

I'm rather astounded that Minstrels doesn't have this one already.  I love
this poem's sense of sad futility, the desire to save the moments of one's
life from slipping away before the dream of living is ended. The questions
raised cause me to look deep inside myself and ask "So, what's the purpose?
Is it real?"

I think many people have experienced that sensation of the time slipping
away from them, and wanting to slow it down, stop it. Unable to do so, we
stand there and let it slide through our fingers, losing precious moments
forever, unable to stop time's march.

And the question remains: Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a
dream? Nobody knows, everybody wonders. Maybe we find out when all of those
grains of sand have ended for each of us. Maybe not. It will be interesting
to find out.

-Jenn

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1716.html
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