Analysis POETry: "A Dream Within A Dream"

1 Comment Posted By: Denny Dixie On 19.43

Poe is describing feelings of desperation and sadness at the passing of time, and comparing it to a dream. He wishes he could hold on to just a moment of his life. He questions if anything in life is real or is it all "But a dream within a dream?" A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in 1849.

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?

Voice

The effect is the frustration of the narrator who is comparing one grain of sand to a dream. The narrator has a handful of sand and is struggling to separate one from many grains but cannot do so. This sense of frustration refers to lines nineteen to twenty-four. Poe also tries to make the reader feel hopeful. In the beginning of the poem the narrator is in a state of hopelessness because he feels that he is trapped in his own dream and there is no way out. One knows that he feels there is no way out by referring to lines ten and eleven in which the word all is emphasized. As an example of Poe’s use of personification, the sand can be compared to sand in an hourglass, and his hand can be compared to an hourglass. As the sand passes between his fingers, time is running out. Poe tries to create suspense by saying, “O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave?” By using the adjective pitiless to describe the wave, Poe indicates that the narrator may be losing an item of importance, which one-grain of sand symbolizes.

Although he may be losing an item of importance he still seems hopeful as Hyatt Waggoner refers to the first stanza in which the narrator says, “is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream.” Approaching the end of the poem, this same statement is in the form of a question, indication that there may be some hope. The particular mood of this poem is somewhat intense. One may feel tense as a result if the narrator’s frustration however, because of the effect of hope, the mood may also be some what optimistic. His reputation of the phrase “Oh God!” creates suspense show in the agony of the narrator.

Furthermore, his reputation of the title and phrase A Dream Within A Dream” put emphasis on what he is trying to prove. “While I Weep” also repeated twice indicates that the narrator is crying and possibly in pain. At the same time, the reputation of this hopeless phrase creates a feeling of depression. Poe often used repetition to create a feeling of melancholy. Edgar Allen Poe’s strong use of adjectives throughout the poem helps the reader to create an image of the poem in his or her head.

“A Dream Within A Dream” is determined from frustration of the narrator who is trying relentlessly to separate one gain of sand from a handful of grains, even crying, but he continues. He sees hope and enlightenment to keep going. He preservers as Poe did in Arduous Life. While creating his poems, Edgar Allan Poe developed characteristic techniques and themes such as those displayed in hid poem “A Dream Within A Dream.”

Analysis:

This poem is Gothic. Gothic poems are characterized as extremely emotional, inherently sublime, and disturbing in atmosphere. They are psychologically anxious, mysterious and dark caused by frustration, despair, madness, and death. Those characterizations are presented in two lines: “O God! Can I not save (21) / ‘One’ from the pitiless waves?” (22) Extreme emotion, frustration, despair and fear of death, is present when the author cries, “O God!” (21). Awe inherent in the sublime is present when the author realizes he cannot “save (21) / ‘One’” (22). The atmosphere is disturbing when the author refers to the waves as “pitiless” (22). The author identifies his psychological anxiety when he says the memories cannot be saved not even “One” (22). Mystery and darkness appears when the author cries, “O God!” (21) Madness and death is present when the author realizes he cannot save even one reality, but time will take it away like the “pitiless wave” (22). The author cries to a supernatural being is desperate with psychological anxiety, for he cannot save one memory, the waves take on personification for being pitiless: they are without regard for his desires. Like the grains of golden sand life and life’s golden memories slip through his fingers with the passage of time, much like waves eroding the sand on a beach.

Stanza

This poem has two stanzas, and two couplets. The first stanza is lines one through nine, and the second stanza is twelve through twenty-two. The couplets are lines ten and eleven, and twenty-three and twenty-four. The first stanza is a response to a proposition posed by a beloved and farewell to the beloved. He asserts an agreement: “You are not wrong, who deem” (4) / That my days have been a dream” (5): the rest of the poem is a response to that assertion. The author poses a question as hope flies during the night or day without present vision―is it gone?

The second stanza is lines twelve through twenty-two. It is written in the first person coupled with verbs: “I stand” (12), “I hold” (14), “I weep” (18), and “can I” (21). The author stands, holds, weeps and then begs the question―can he not save one memory from the passage of time? How does he address this question? He stands amid a violent shore. What does the author try to hold? He tries to hold “golden sand” (15). What happens to the sand? The sand creeps “through [his] fingers” (17). What happens when he loses those memories? He weeps. What can the author do about this loss? He calls out to God to save just one precious memory from the passage of time.

Rhyme

Lines ten and eleven, and twenty-three and twenty are couplets. They consist of two lines that rhyme with “seem” and “dream,” but they do not have the same feet or meter. This couplet is an epigram: it is brief, clever, and memorable. For example, “’All’ that we see or seem (10) / Is but a dream within a dream” (11), and the next: “Is ‘all’ that we see or seem (23) / But a dream within a dream?”(24) are memorable lines that rhyme with alliteration and assonance.

Alliteration is with the “s” sound in the words “see” and “seem”(10) and (23), and “d” sound in the words “dream” and “dream” (11) and (24). Assonance is presented with the “ee” sound in “see,” “seems,” “dream,” and “dream” (10), (11), (23), and (24). The alliteration and assonance within each of those lines are referred to as an internal rhyme. The first couplet is a response to a question: are memories gone? The response is an affirmative statement. The second couplet is a response to a question: can he not save one memory from the passage of time? The response begs the question.

Meter

This poem rhymes: in the first stanza it is―AAABBCCDDBB, and in the second stanza―EEFFGGGHHIIBB. It has feet and is metered:

lines one has three feet, and all feet are trochaic;

line two has three feet, and all feet are trochaic;

line three has three feet, and all feet are iambic;

line four has three feet, and all feet are iambic;

line five has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line six has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line seven has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line eight has four feet, and three trochaic with a final spondee;

line nine has four feet, and three are iambic with a final spondee;

line ten has three feet, and three are iambic;

line eleven has four feet, and four are iambic;

line twelve has four feet, and four are iambic;

line thirteen has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line fourteen has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line fifteen has three feet, and one is trochaic with the final two as iambic;

line sixteen has three feet, and three are iambic;

line seventeen has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line eighteen has four feet with a caesurae in the middle as indicated by the hyphen, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line nineteen has three feet, and three are iambic;

line twenty has three feet, and three are iambic;

line twenty-one has three feet, and three are iambic;

line twenty-two has three feet, and three are iambic;

line twenty-three has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee;

line twenty-four has four feet, and three are trochaic with a final spondee.

The variations in feet and meter do not match the changes in the rhyming scheme. The couplets do not match in feet and meter, but do match in rhyme. The author has six variations: the feet vary between three and four, and the meter variation include―iambic, trochaic, and spondees. For the reader, the iambic meter expresses a passive, a more natural gait than the trochaic. The trochaic meter tends to be more urgent and insistent. The spondees highlight important words, such as “dream” (5), “away” (6), “day” (7), “none” (8), “gone” (9), “shore” (13), “hand” (14), “deep” (17), “weep” (18), “seems” (23), “dream” (24). When I dream away my day are all those memories gone? I stand upon the shore as dreams slip beyond my reach into the deep hollows of death. I weep for what it seems―those memories are but a dream. This poem is one of despair as indicated by the accentuated words of ‘gone’ (9), ‘All’ (10), ‘One’ (22), and ‘all’ (23). The reader is left with the question―through the passage of time, are our dreams that we see or seem gone one and all?

Biography:

Poe’s life began in Boston, Massachusetts. Struggling and living in poverty, David and Elizabeth Poe, an actor and an actress who lived in Boston at that time, gave birth to Edgar Poe on January 19. 1809. Whether or not his parents raised young Poe with and religious affiliation is unknown; however according to Poe’s poems, he was most likely an atheist, practicing no religion. William Henry Leonard, Poe’s brother, was two years old when Poe was born, and about one year following Poe’s mother Elizabeth gave birth to a little girl whom she called Rosalie, During the summer of 1809 while the family traveled to New York, some critics believe that David, Edgar Allan Poe’s father left his wife and children. Nearly two years later in 1811, Elizabeth passed away as a result of tuberculosis, leaving all children of the Poe family separated.

Edgar Poe was taken in by prosperous scotch merchant, John Allan, who lived in England. In 1836 Edgar Allan Poe married his cousin Virginia Clemm who was merely fourteen years old. Living with Virginia, whom he loved dearly, and his aunt, Poe worked to financially support them. Although Poe was unsuccessful at trying. Poe enjoyed the relaxed environment and peaceful comfortable house that the women provided him. Although Poe was living in a relaxed and comfortable environment, Poe himself was not noticeable relaxed. Until 1826 Poe’s life was pleasant and enjoyable. But upon entering the University of Virginia, Poe quickly began drinking and gambling, gaining many debts. Poe had a sensitive temperament; there fore he was emotional. This is probably the reason for Poe writing poetry with no particular meaning but only to have an effect on the reader as Hyatt Waggoner suggest: “Poe appears to be not even trying to say anything but only to achieve an “effect”- to make us shiver or to bring tears.” Poe believed that the importance of the poem was more important than the poet himself. Poe’s theory, applied to writing poetry in that the writing must have an effect on the reader and the author must intentionally write the effect into the poem. In Poe’s poem, “A Dream Within A Dream,” Poe tries affect the reader in several ways.

Poe’s Characteristic techniques, themes, and poetry were greatly influenced by his life. Edgar Allan Poe accredits his parents, his mother particularly, with giving him the ability to recite verse (Minor 2240). When Poe was fourteen, he fell in love with a fellow student’s mother but was severely depressed when, a year later, the benevolent woman passed away. This depression most likely caused him to write poems with profound melancholy. “One of the most important events of his early life was the death of his mother when he was not yet three, and his poetry bears the memory.” (Minor 2240). Virginia’s death in 1846 destroyed Poe’s sprit, causing him to go mad and drink excessively (Roth 2). Several deaths influenced his sorrowful poetry. Although his poetry was sorrowful, his poetry was recognized by many people.

Edgar Allan Poe was not recognized instantly. He was greatly criticized in America until he was older. Developing skills and recognition took time. During this period Poe became a celebrated poet not only for his poems but also for inspiring society in America and internationally in Latin America, Scandinavia, Japan, and the Soviet Union. Although he was immediately popular in America, “Poe is considered the father of the French Symbolist Movement, even though he never had any contact with French writers.” In 1835 Poe wrote for the Southern Literary Messenger, developing the reputation of the magazine. By contributing numerous essays, stories, and poems he and the magazine wanted recognition.

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