A Dream Within a Dream

This is probably one of my favourite poems written by Edgar Allan Poe because of the amount of emotion he puts into it. To help others understand its meaning, I will be analysing it. Here is a link: A Dream Within a Dream

"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;" This poem was written after Poe's wife died, meaning one can assume it is dedicated to her. He parts from her, giving her one last kiss goodbye. Claiming next, that everyone could see that he was in love with her and she made him happy. He could not have asked for anything more than her, and it was like a dream come true. 

"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." This next part of the poem illustrates the hopelessness in the situation. Hope is not something there permanently and can disappear in a night, a day, a vision, at any moment of our lives. He is questioning how he can depend on something as unreliable as hope itself. The famous concluding line of this stanza is, "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream", meaning that our life, everything that happens to us day by day, is about as predictable and logical as a dream. 

"I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore, and I hold within my hand grains of golden sand- how few! yet how they creep through my fingers into the deep, while I weep- while I weep!" When Poe talks about the surf tormented shore here, he could be comparing it to his feelings. The roaring, raging, crazy waves could be compared to the emotional instability he is going through with the pain, the sorrow, the anger and the confusion due to his loss. Next he talks about grains of sand that he holds in his hands, which are slipping through his fingers. In my opinion, this stands for the time slipping away from him. Although he wants to live life and keep moving forward he is so overwhelmed with sorrow that he is unable to function. He tries slowing down time so he can cope with his loss, but nobody has that kind of power and like the grains of sand, time is just keeps creeping through his fingers, one grain at a time. 



"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 the last part of this paragraph, Poe is begging God for his help. He implores him to slow down time, so he can overcome his emotions and keep living life to its fullest. He then questions again whether everything that happens to us in life is as irrelevant as a dream. This is an extremely popular poem by Poe because it addresses a topic that many people still question today. What is the point of our existence? 


Ideas used from grade ten English class oral discussion