Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream within a Dream” (Comparative Text - Examiner proofsheets and Flag of Our Union)


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Texts Represented:

  • 1849-01 - Examiner proofsheets (About September 1849)
  • 1849-02 - Flag of Our Union (March 31, 1849)

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Misc: {{1849-02: [Written for The Flag of our Union.] }}

Title: {{1849-01: TO —— —— //1849-02: A Dream within a Dream. }}

Rule: {{1849-02: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ }}

Byline: {{1849-02: BY EDGAR A. POE. }}

Rule: {{1849-02: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ }}

Line-01-001 Take this kiss upon 1849-01: thy //1849-02: the }} brow!

Line-01-002 And, in parting from you now,

Line-01-003 Thus much let me avow —

Line-01-004 You are not wrong, 1849-01: to //1849-02: who }} deem

Line-01-005 That my days have been a dream;

Line-01-006 Yet if Hope has flown away

Line-01-007 In a night, or in a day,

Line-01-008 In a vision, or in none,

Line-01-009 Is it therefore the less gone?

Line-01-010 All that we see or seem

Line-01-011 Is but a dream within a dream.

Line-01-012 I stand amid the roar

Line-01-013 Of a surf-tormented shore,

Line-01-014 And I hold within my hand

Line-01-015 Grains of the golden sand —

Line-01-016 How few! yet how they creep

Line-01-017 Through my fingers to the deep,

Line-01-018 While I weep — while I weep!

Line-01-019 O 1849-01: , }} God! can I not grasp

Line-01-020 Them with a tighter clasp?

Line-01-021 O 1849-01: , }} God! can I not save

Line-01-022 One from the pitiless wave?

Line-01-023 Is all that we see or seem

Line-01-024 But a dream within a dream?


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Notes:

For an explanation of the formatting used in this Comparative Text, see editorial policies and methods. This format is very much an experiment, particularly for poetry.

Because these changes reflect two different printed texts, pagination has been omitted in the present text. The base line numbers are common to both texts.

The precise dating of the Examiner text is uncertain, and thus the order of texts is conjectural.

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[S:0 - comparative] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - To — — (Comparative Text - Examiner and Flag of Our Union)