A Dream within a Dream

Poem By: Edgar Allan Poe

Fic By: Ahrianna Lee

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Disclaimer: Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency. Dream Within a Dream was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 18something and it's not mine either.

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~*~

The moon shone through the thin drapes that covered a high window, dancing in shadows from an outside tree across the bed. The wind blew sorrowfully through the night, whispering the words of some forgotten plight. The boy lifted slowly his head, looked from his pillow across the bed to the sleeping form in the moon's faint light. He smiled softly to the rise and fall of the chest, the sweet sound of breath. He looked out to the night sky, seeing dawn's light paint the east in it's soft hue. Bending close to the sleeping lover he whispered softly,

Take this kiss upon the brow!

Stood slowly and with one last glance out the window he walked to the door. There he stopped, bid his love good-bye.

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

He turned slowly and stepped out into the twilight mist. He cast his eyes upon the sky, questioning all but why. He watched the sun rise from out the sea, the moon set over mountains dark, he thought of all his life did see. Of the shadows of his 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?

He asked the sky watching the morning dove fly from it's perch, out across the sand and sea. Far away from war torn lands as these. Far from him and his memories. A single tear rolled down his cheek from furrowed brow and half closed eyes to the sand at his feet to mingle in the sand dune's rise.

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

He walked slowly from out the shadow of the flown bird's tree to the beach to stand in it's crashing waves among the rocks there since ancient days. He stood in the water, braced against it's surge as he watched the sun climb up the sky from out the ocean's dirge.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

He cried to the dying wind as it blew the sea mist to his face. He knelt on one knee in the crashing waves, scooped up a fist of the golden sand.

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

The waves crashed over him, pulling at his grip, pulling at the sand, it slipped through his fingers and was carried away, into the sea, never seen again. He let his hand fall back down to the sand, his hair wet with the waves embrace, he lifted the end of his long braid to his face.

How few! Yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

He hid his crying face in his palms, still holding his long hair. Long lost faces drown his mind, he could feel the hand of her phantom on his shoulder. The specter of her that saved him so long ago, gave him his braid and his life then left him behind, to live in this strife. Standing behind her he could feel all the others, the friends the mentors, the father and his brothers. He lifted his head and hands to shake his fists at the heavens.

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! Can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

He hit the ocean swells with his meager fist and hung his head low to the waves. This fight he was fighting, would it be but for a dream? This war that has taken everything, is it really for what it seems? The salt of his tears did mix in the oceans depths, the cries of his heart drown out by the thundering waves, carried still to heaven. Then the wind gave way as the waves died down, crashing less and less. The sea was calm now, and but lapped at the shore. He lifted his eyes to the skies and relished in the sun's embrace, whispered to the fading phantoms as they left this place.

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

~*~

*Notes: This poem just spoke to me. Like many others of Poe's it's rather dark but with a strange and twisted hope, a revelation and acceptance of how things are and that some things may never change. This one's brimming with symbolism and cries out to be illustrated, I may one day, but till then anyone else can take a crack at it if they want. The poem is perfect for Duo, (just in case you didn't pick that up.) After all he lives his life in a dream, they all have but him especially. (This would also work well for Wufei, but I don't know enough about him to do it.) His memory of his past haunts him and is a driving force in his life. Sister Helen, Father Maxwell, Solo... All the grains of sand that slipped from his fingers in the crashing wave of war. The Hope flown away like the dove in the dawn is the peace that is always just out of reach but what he is fighting for. Thus his fight has been but for the dream of that peace; which in the questioning at the end is still worth fighting for, for if they can realize that dream then his life, all their lives will have meaning more than but a dream within a dream.*

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.