Question

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 uses a pair of rhyming words to describe trying to hold sand in “A Dream Within a Dream.” In a short paragraph, tell what the words are and how they express the speaker’s feelings. Use details from the poem to support your answer.

I'm trying to decide whether it's creep and weep or creep and deep.

Can someone help?

Answer 1

I like creep and weep.

Answer 2

[AI-generated answer — Explain Bot]

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem "A Dream Within a Dream," the pair of rhyming words used to describe trying to hold sand are "creep" and "deep." These words express the speaker's feelings of despair and helplessness. The speaker is standing amid a surf-tormented shore, holding grains of sand in their hand. The word "creep" suggests the gradual, relentless slipping away of the sand through their fingers, symbolizing the fleeting nature of time and the loss of control. The repetition of "while I weep" emphasizes the speaker's emotional state of sorrow and desperation. The final stanza intensifies these feelings as the speaker questions whether it is possible to hold onto anything at all. The words "creep" and "deep" create a rhythmic and rhyming effect, underscoring the theme of transience and the inability to retain what is perceived as reality.