Thursday, May 18, 2006


"All that you see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."


  1. A dream to some, a nightmare to others," Merlin/Excalibur

    Empirical reality may be ethereal, but it is certainly not disembodied. Nature is offhandedly enthusiastic about express delivering bursting cans of whoop ass.

  2. Beautiful quote. Can you provide the exact source? I tried a bit of Googling but couldn't find it.

    I'm sure Jorge Luis Borges must have been aware of the line -not only the idea of nested dreams appears in many of his works, but I also seem to recall he uses an almost literal Spanish version of this quote once or twice. I didn't know it came form Poe.

  3. The entire poem is just as interesting:

    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?

    Edgar Allan Poe

    Bee, came by way of Lubos and I really like your blog!

  4. Hi alejandro,

    the poem is called A Dream within a Dream, and you can probably find it in some Poe-collection, sorry, don't know an exact reference.

    Thanks for the nice words, rea ann :-)



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