Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream Within Dream

by Edgar Allan Poe

(Published 1850)

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

This 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! Ican 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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Alone

by Edgar Allan Poe

(published 1875)

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were -- I have not seen

As others saw -- I could not bring

My passions from a common sprinh --

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow -- I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone --

And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --

Yhen -- in my chilhood -- in the dawn

Of a most stormy life -- ws drawn

From ev'ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still --

From the torrent, or the fountain --

From the red cliff of the mountain --

From the sun that 'round me roll'd

In its autumn tint of gold --

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass;d me flying by --

From the thunder, and the storm --

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view --