A Dream Within a Dream



"A Dream Within a Dream" is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The poem is 24 lines, divided into two stanzas. The poem questions the way one can distinguish between reality and fantasy, asking, "Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?"

Analysis
"A Dream Within a Dream" reflects Poe's feelings about his life at the time, dramatizing his confusion in watching the important things in his life slip away. Realizing he cannot hold onto even one grain of sand leads to his final question that all things are a dream.

The poem references "golden sand," an image derived from the 1848 discovery of gold in California.

Publication history
The poem was first published in the March 31, 1849 edition of a Boston-based periodical called Flag of Our Union. The same publication had only two weeks before first published Poe's short story "Hop-Frog." The next month, owner Frederick Gleason announced it could no longer pay for whatever articles and poems it published.

Adaptations

 * The Alan Parsons Project's album Tales of Mystery and Imagination opens with an instrumental homage to the poem. Its 1987 re-release included a narration by Orson Welles.
 * The Propaganda album A Secret Wish features the track "A dream within a dream"; the lyric of the song is this poem.
 * Biological Radio, the 1997 Dreadzone album, features the track "Dream Within A Dream" which quotes lines from the poem.
 * Britney Spears' 2001-2002 Dream Within a Dream Tour is heavily themed on the poem.
 * The Yardbirds' recorded a musical adaptation for their 2003 album Birdland.
 * The 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock (directed by Peter Weir) features the character Miranda reciting these lines, slightly inaccurate, from Poe's poem.