Lyric Poem · Dreams & Sleep
A Dream
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed —
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream — that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam,
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar —
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day star?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/a-dream-poe
Quick facts
- Poem
- A Dream
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Dreams & Sleep, Peace, Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 5-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849
- Source record
- PoetryDBA Dream by edgar-allan-poe, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 be6ba817254e224b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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