A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allen Poe

Summary: A Dream Within A Dream: is a poem about a dream within a dream by Edgar Allen Poe in 1827 when he was a teenager looking down his own road of life

Characters:

Speaker - Speaks about dreams within dreams

Stanzas:

In the kiss and parting of a loved ones and in his recognition that those who "deem", the speaker says that their judgement is not wrong
The speaker says that his days have been dreams where hope had been gone or fleeting
The speaker says that when we "see or seem" we are in a dream and in this dream within a dream he is on a beach
Upon the sound of waves, the speaker lets grains of sand slip through his hand and that we, and at the very least his loved ones, drop into a sea of death, a "pitiless wave"
The speaker weeps for the grains of sand but it will do nothing for them for it is a dream that one cannot change and those grains which fall into the "pitiless wave" are gone
The speaker asks if "all we see or seem but a dream within a dream" to may be hear a "no" so that he could fall back into reality
The "pitiless wave" is death

Other Notes:

A remembrance of loved ones as they pass away and a visit into the windows of the mind might have been motivation for this poem
Poe is known to have significant events in his life that may have inspired poems such as this one to be written by him