Question 3.

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?

In this poem, the first stanza ends with a statement and the second stanza ends with a question. Why?

the progression from a statement to a question represents the speaker's certainty that life is, in fact, a dream

the progression from a statement to a question proves how old age can cause confusion

the progression from a statement to a question suggests that the speaker changes his mind to be more optimisitc

the progression from a statement to a question demonstrates how the speaker is less certain about the meaning of life