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;
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

Analysis of "A Dream within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe

To begin with, I will try to analyze in the line nineteen to twenty-four : that I
can see the effect of this poem is the feeling of frustration by the narrator that
is comparison between a grain of the sand and a dream. It shows that the
narrator is trying to separate sands in his hand to be one from many grains but
he is unable to do it. In order to make some torching feelings to the reader, the
feeling of hopeful can also be seen in this poem. At the beginning of the poem,
the narrator seems to feel hopeless because he feels that he is stuck in the
dream that he had and he finds that there is no way out, we can see it clearly
in the line ten and eleven, the word is all emphasized. The example of figure of
speech in this poem is the personification effect, 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. The narrator here tries to
create such a strained situation by saying, “O God! can I not save One from the
pitiless wave?” Besides, By using the adjective miserly to explain the wave,
narrator try to show the loss of an importance item, which is the one – grain of
sand symbolizes. Although he has lost an item of importance he still hopes to
be as Hyatt Waggoner that refers to the first stanza in which the narrator says,
“is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream.” At the end of the
poem, there is a statement in the form of question, in order to make the
reader guessing that there is still be a hope. The particular mood of this poem
is intense. In some sentence may feel strain as a performing of the narrator
who feels the frustration. However, because of the effect of the hopes, the
mood can also be referred as optimistic feelings. His words by saying the
phrase “Oh God!” creates suspense show in the agony of the narrator.

In addition, the diction of the title and phrase “A Dream Within A Dream” is
focused on what he is trying to prove. The sentence “While I Weep” is also
repeated two times to show the atmosphere of sadness, pessimistic and
painful of the narrator. At the same time, the exiting of feeling hopeless of the
narrator creates a feeling of depression. The narrator uses many repetitions to
create a feeling of melancholy.

The use of a strong adjective in the poem helps the reader try to create a deep
imagination of the plot in the poem into his or her head.

“A Dream With In A Dream” is the shape of feeling frustration of the narrator

who is trying hard to separate one gain of sand from a handful of grains, even
it is like impossible to happen but he keep on trying because he feels that there
is a hope and enlightenment to be occurred.

Here are some rhythm that I have found in this poem :

1. In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none

The narrator tries to stress the words in the beginning of both in the first
sentence and the second sentence. With the word “in”, when the reader
read those, they will make some loud voice to make the stressing of
those sentences.

2. While I weep- while I weep!

It is clearly seen that one sentence is repeated to emerge some

particular feelings which in this poem is the frustration feeling. The
repetition shows that in these two same sentences is more force fully
than others.

3. O God! can I not grasp

O God! can I not save

This is the same as the previous ones above, the repetition of the two
words “oh God” makes some stress to focus more on particular
sentences which is shown that the narrator wants to get the reader to
focus attention by saying “oh God”. This means that the narrator
desperately having hopes to God.

4. At the end of every stanza, it is written but a dream within a dream?

Narrator is also making a repetition in these two last sentences in order
to say to the reader that these sentences refers to all the contain of the
poem. That is why the narrator chose it as a title of the poem.
Diction: as I told you above, the diction of the poem mostly indicates some
kind of pitiful feeling like frustrating or pessimistic that occurs in the narrator’s
own experience. Well, it is not easy to understand and for some readers it
seems hard to follow the plot of the poems because not only the diction is
beautifully written in some best words it is also it appears a curiosity feeling to
find out what it is.

Here are the analysis of each stanza

First Stanza

The poem begins:

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;

Lines two and three are the from of the older fragment. In the beginning form
they really mean an ordinary farewell, which it shows there is a couple with the
kiss in line one, they suggest a final parting.

"You are not wrong, who deem..." the narrator mostly speaks to himself. Is he
complaining about wasting years? Or perhaps he is admitting to his
psychological weakness.

It continues:

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?

The narrator almost separate ordinary feeling of hopes. Hoping to fly away "In
a night" suggests the dark, reflective (and embittered) world he inhabited
much of the time. "In a vision", in his imagination, he sees it disappear. Yet in
the cold light of day his more mundane miseries are no less real and painful.
Hope, for Poe, is the scent of a life-force that runs through all things. It has
gone and he is doomed. Or perhaps it is a human construct?

The stanza ends:

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

Hope is the dream within the dream of life. It calls to mind Shelley's Adonais:

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep -

He hath awakened from the dream of life -

Hope is a dream; life is a dream; and all Poe can see upon waking is an end to
both, oblivion.

Second Stanza

It begins:

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

There is no peace in Poe's life. The breakers on the shore are the desires and
expectations that torment

us endlessly.

It continues:

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!

"Grains of the golden sand": In earlier fragments, Poe simply alluded to

"particles of sand"; but here, the "golden sand" probably refers to the
California gold-fever that was raging at the time. He personally disapproved of
the 49ers, guessing that most were engaged on a fool's errand, but he
understood their blind motivations: greed and desperation.