April 19, 2026

"A Dream Within a Dream" (Excerpt) by Edgar Allan Poe

"A Dream Within a Dream" (Excerpt) by Edgar Allan Poe
"A Dream Within a Dream" (Excerpt) by Edgar Allan Poe
The Concise Verse
"A Dream Within a Dream" (Excerpt) by Edgar Allan Poe
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?

0:01 "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe. 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?

0:47 "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe.

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First published in 1849, just months before his mysterious death, "A Dream Within a Dream" captures the haunting psychological intensity that Edgar Allan Poe is legendary for. As a master of Gothic literature and dark Romanticism, Poe used his verse…