Edgar Allan Poe's short poem, A Dream Within a Dream, was published in 1849. The poem is divided into two stanzas, and the speaker's tone changes drastically from the first to the second. In the first stanza, the speaker acknowledges that people think he lives in a dream world but also suggests that everybody does. The narrator kisses the listener in parting. He tells the listener that he agrees that his life has been a dream, but he suggests that everything "is but a dream within a dream." He stands on the shore of the ocean, holding grains of sand as he cries. He cannot keep the sand from running out of his hand, and he wonders if he cannot save even one grain from the surf. The structure of "A Dream Within a Dream" consists of two stanzas containing two disparate but ultimately connected scenes. The first stanza shows the first-person point of view of the narrator parting from a lover, while the second places the narrator on a beach while futilely attempting to grasp a handful of sand in his hand. The juxtaposed scenes contrast in a number of ways, as the poem moves from a calm, though solemn, farewell to a more passionate second half. Whereas the first stanza features a thoughtful agreement, the seashore scene contains expletives such as "O God!" and anguished exclamations along with despairing rhetorical questions to reflect the torment in the narrator's soul. You can listen online to free English audiobook “A Dream within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe on our website.
