Lyric Poem · Life
A Dream Within A Dream
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
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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“A Dream Within A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/a-dream-within-a-dream
Quick facts
- Poem
- A Dream Within A Dream
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Published
- 1849
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Life, Sad
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
- 24 lines · 2 stanzas of 11–13 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 6-7 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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 Within A Dream by edgar-allan-poe, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1849
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 eef3c1af4fca3870…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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