Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.
~ Karen Ravn
"A dream within dream" is indeed a thought provoking poem written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1849.
After a reasonable years of experience, the author is of the opinion that life is but a dream within a dream.
From the first stanza of this poem, one can tell that the narrator was conversing with someone. The person probably pointed out that he (the narrator) has been living in fantasy.
The narrator agreed that it is quite difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality but that life is 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 from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?