A Dream Within a Dream Copywork
Poe watches sand slip through his fingers and questions whether anything is real
$1.00
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About this printable
Poe's short meditation on time and loss packs a lot of discussion into twenty-four lines, making it a favorite for middle and high school copywork. Students practice em dashes, question marks, and exclamation points in real context rather than in isolation. Pairs well with a poetry lesson on repetition and refrain. 16 pages, 1/4-inch letters in joined cursive on dashed manuscript lines. Sheets included: Copywork (Step 1), First Letter Hints (Step 2), Memory Lines (Step 3), Source Text, First Letters Only. Edgar Allan Poe, 1849. Public domain text.
ON THIS SHEET: 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, 1849. LETTER SIZE: 1/4-inch. HANDWRITING: joined cursive. SHEETS: Copywork (Step 1), First Letter Hints (Step 2), Memory Lines (Step 3), Source Text, First Letters Only.
- Category Poetry
- Price $1.00
- Format Printable PDF
- Usage Print unlimited copies
Inside the PDF
3 pages from the 16-page PDF, as they print.
A plan for this set
A longer text: give Steps 1, 2 and 3 about two weeks, one sheet a day.
- Days 1–4 Copywork (Step 1). Read the whole text, then copy it exactly.
- Days 5–8 First Letter Hints (Step 2). Write it again with only the first letter of each word as a prompt.
- Days 9–10 Memory Lines (Step 3). Write it from memory on lines sized to each word.
Paste any poem and print it stanza by stanza as copywork, first-letter hints and memory lines, line breaks kept. Free for 20 pages a month, no card.
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