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 represents Edgar Allan Poe’s view on life that we are all living life’s big dream, where our inner dreams are merely a function of our own mind. Poe believes that his life is like a dream. He stands on the shore of the ocean, holding grains of sand and is weeping. He cannot keep the sand from running out of his hand, and is is comparing it to his own life. As in, life is always slipping away through our fingers like the sand in Poe’s hands (haha did not mean to rhyme but cannot substitute any other words). When sand is held loosely, it will sit in your palm, but if you try to grasp it for a firm hold you loose more control of what little you have. He compares holding the sand to dreaming. Therefore, if you hold on too tight to your dream you end up making it all fall apart (wake up). When Poe holds on to the sand too tight it slips away so like a dream the more you become aware of it (lucid dreaming), the more likely you are waking up from it. Thus loosing the happy place that you are dreaming about. In addition, I think subconsciously whatever you dream about are your goals in life that being success, reconciling with particular people, living a lavish lifestyle, the list goes on and on. The waves he is mentioning are in a way the obstacles we go through in life bringing us down. If you think about it literally if he uses a little water from the shore and places it in his palm with the sand it will become more sturdy and more successful to grasp without having it slip away. But thinking about it in terms of oneself you can say the waves are the obstacles that are making you grow, learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to solidify your goal.