Please help 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;5
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 seem10
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-15
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? 20
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Question:

By definition, a dream is an imagined series of events that occurs during sleep. The connotation for the word dream is positive in nature, because people associate dreams with hopes, goals, and success.

Based on the title of this poem, the reader might expect the poem to have a positive or happy tone. The reader soon comes to the conclusion that the typical connotation of the word dream does not apply here.

State how the reader knows that the usual connotation of the word dream does not apply in this poem. Use details from the poem to support your answer.