Edgar Allan Poe is a well-known writer and author from the 1800’s. Poe’s adolescence was not an easy one; his father left, his mother died, and Poe was adopted by a distant family member, all before his 3rd birthday.
At the age of 22, he decided to pursue his dream of writing. Unfortunately for him, his career never really took off in the way he hoped during his lifetime.
He died in 1849 at the young age of 40 with very little recognition or money to his name. His work was often disregarded for not meeting the standard of American writers of the time. Additionally, the dark and gruesome subject matter turned away a large audience.
A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
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?