A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

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?

i think he is referring to this world as only a dream, maybe because he has lost someone who is important to him in just a wink of an eye just like waking up after a short dream. that everything is temporary and someday we will wake up and we'll gonna face the reality which is the life after death.

This poem is about the true nature of the human existance. We are created from God\'s dream and we are dreaming ourselves. There is no matter-none- only the illusion of solidness. He is sad that he cannot save us and therefore, himself from this illusion and all the pain and suffering resulting from our own ignornance.