A Dream Within A Dream

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 pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
but a dream within a dream?
– Edgar A. Poe

Two weeks ago I visited the Poe Museum for the first time, even though I've lived within five minutes of it for 10 years. Ever since then I have a new appreciation for Poe. First to write the detective and mystery novels. Now I see where Terry Pratchett gets his satirical attitude. I thought he invented the humorous footnotes in fiction but it was Poe. What a guy!