I have often wondered where Poe got his science fiction and short stories/poems from. His father ran away a year after his birth in 1809 and his mother died a year after that. The family who took him never adopted him and he totally parted from them around 1930. Edgar was a maverick in many ways and at age 27 married his 13 year old cousin who died of tuberculosis 10 years later. He himself died of unknown causes in 1849 and must have had lots of lucid dreams.
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?
This poem is in the public domain.