Question

A Dream Within a Dream
by Edgar Allan Poe

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?

–Public Domain
Multiple Choice Question
Read these lines from the second stanza.

And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand—
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,

What is the poet implying with the symbolism in these lines?


A.
The holding of the sand symbolizes an appreciation of nature and a need to conserve natural resources.

B.
The sand passing through the poet's fingers gives the reader the impression of time passing quickly.

C.
The way the sand creeps through the poet's fingers implies that time is creeping by very slowly.

D.
The return of the sand to the ocean implies that all things great and small will return home one day.

Answer 1

B. The sand passing through the poet's fingers gives the reader the impression of time passing quickly.