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"A Dream Within A Dream" - College Essays

"A Dream Within A Dream"

If ever a poet's life influenced his writing ,Edgar Allan Poe did. Poe's personal emotions were evident in all of his writings but no more so than in the poem, "A Dream Within a Dream." In this poem Poe's feelings of loss and hopelessness are clearly reflected, "Yet if hope has flown away, in a night or in a day."
Poe was born in 1809 to David and Elizabeth Poe who were actors. Hid father died or disappeared and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was two. He and his baby sister Rosalie were left orphaned. Mrs. Francis Allan took him in but not his sister. Her husband never would adopt him. He was sent to many different schools and while in college, began to drink heavily. This ...

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is trying to convince her as well as himself that his life has not changed through the years. He questions the realness and significance of the everyday events of life and finally concludes that they are unimportant and superficial. "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."
The second stanza takes on a more despairing tone. His air of carelessness begins to vanish. He realizes that everything he holds of value is quickly slipping away from him as, "Grains of golden sand [through his fingers.]" He reexamines his thoughts from the previous stanza and restates his philosophy as a puzzling question. " Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?"
This poem appeals to the reader's emotions and intellect. Often in life we feel that we cannot get a firm hold on our lives and that we too are standing "on a surf-tormented shore." Edgar Allan Poe is an author known for being able to crawl into the souls of his readers and manipulate their feelings. His ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 2/19/2007 03:03:15 AM
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 503
Pages: 2

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