Published in 1849 and when I first read this as a child, it left a haunting impression with me that shall last a lifetime. The question of being a self aware being, dreaming within a dream echoed my own questions about the very fabric reality and existence. These may seem obvious things to wonder about, but some people go an entire lifetime without such considerations. The imagery of the endless ungraspable grains of sand work well as a backdrop to the bigger questions he is pondering & exasperated by.
lyrics
Dream Within A Dream
Take this upon thy brow!
And, parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, to 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 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!
Oh God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
Oh God! can i now save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
credits
from Poe Poetry & Me,
track released October 21, 2015
Edgar Allan Poe
Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021