Questioning
A Dream within a Dream (Edgar Allan Poe)
The following poem is well known:
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?
To some it refers to the difference between fantasy and reality, to others to perishableness.
To me, it just reminds me of an other saying/story/poem which I can't find right now. It's about a man who walks in a field of flowers, picks a white one and then awakes - to find the flower on his cushion...
Edit (found it!) I read this first in a book about Arthur and Merlin I guess
It was in this version:
What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?
And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven
and there plucked an strange and beautiful flower?
And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?
Ah, what then?
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?
To some it refers to the difference between fantasy and reality, to others to perishableness.
To me, it just reminds me of an other saying/story/poem which I can't find right now. It's about a man who walks in a field of flowers, picks a white one and then awakes - to find the flower on his cushion...
Edit (found it!) I read this first in a book about Arthur and Merlin I guess
It was in this version:What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?
And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven
and there plucked an strange and beautiful flower?
And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?
Ah, what then?
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Always nice to read some Poe! Been thinking which poem about the white flower you're talking about, but to no avail.Posted 03-02-2009 at 11:01 PM by Aventura
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Depressing - losing things out of your control. Not knowing if things are real or not...Posted 03-03-2009 at 01:29 AM by jenaay -
I think I found it
Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeIf a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?Posted 03-03-2009 at 02:06 PM by itSFMe
Updated 03-03-2009 at 02:14 PM by itSFMe - Oh, I like this one much better! This does leave one with a sense of hope - one can continue on with life knowing there is something in the hereafter. Very inspiring and uplifting!
'course, thinking more on it, it doesn't have to have anything to do with the hereafter. It could be whatever fabulous place you've traveled to in your dreams - and then a magical, unbelievable souvenir - I think I'd be sleeping all the time, just hoping to dream of the same place, to get there again!Posted 03-03-2009 at 05:51 PM by jenaay
Updated 03-03-2009 at 06:27 PM by jenaay - Glad you found it!
What if... I am sure many people would find an explanation, like they had been walking in their sleep or something
Posted 03-03-2009 at 09:46 PM by Aventura -
Its very Buddahlistic to me. I love Poe. people think he wrote scary stuff but he was the ultimate romantic.Posted 03-04-2009 at 03:32 AM by adivawoman
