A Dream Within a Dream Summary and Analysis PDF

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A Dream Within a Dream Summary and Analysis...

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Overview “A Dream Within a Dream” is a short lyric poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Initially published in 1849 in the Boston paper Flag of Our Union, this poem was one of the last poems published by Poe before his early death at age 40 in October 1849. Poe’s life was one of tragedy and loss of those dearest to him, including his wife and mother. His poetry often reflects upon mortality, fate, and the nature of reality. “A Dream Within a Dream” is an excellent example of Poe’s perception of the world through poetry. In his critical writing, such as “The Philosophy of Composition,” he asserted that poetry should not be didactic or moralizing. Instead, he argued that poetry should be created for beauty and pure art. Romantic poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and William Blake strongly influenced Poe’s poetry. His poetry rejects the optimism of the Transcendental movement of the mid 19th century in the US, and in doing so, carves a subgenre in American literature: dark romanticism. Dark romanticism is similar to Gothic literature, but poems and stories written in this subgenre are less about inspiring terror than getting the reader to think about the more tragic aspects of everyday life, like the untimely death of a loved one. “A Dream Within a Dream” functions as a meditation on time lost and how the poet reacts to this loss. This short poem also tackles deep philosophical questions about the distinction between dreams and reality. It asks the reader to consider the thin boundary separating day to-day life from the dream life that we each slip into each night. The fascinating thesis: “Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?” (Lines 23-24) is one taken up by other artists, musicians, filmmakers, and philosophers inspired by Poe. As one example, this line features at the beginning of Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film Inception, which considers the possibilities of lucid dreaming. Poet Biography Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in January 1809. His parents were professional actors David and Eliza Poe. David Poe Jr. was the son of General David Poe Sr., a hero of the American Revolution and a prominent member of society in Baltimore, Maryland. Edgar’s father left his wife and three young children in 1810 and likely died shortly after.

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Eliza (Arnold Hopkins) Poe was an English actress from London who spent much of her life touring the US with different acting troupes. In 1811, she contracted tuberculosis, commonly known then as consumption, and died at a boarding house in Richmond, Virginia, leaving her three children as orphans. Edgar was fostered by a wealthy Richmond merchant and Poe family friend—John Allan—and his wife, Frances. He was given the full name Edgar Allan Poe by his foster family. The young Poe received a complete Classical education in Greek and Latin at the best schools in the UK and the US. In 1826, he enrolled at the University of Virginia to study ancient and modern languages and became engaged for the first time to Sarah Elmira Royster. During university, Poe struggled with financial debts, lost touch with his fiancée, and was forced to drop out and end his engagement within a year. By 1827, Poe left his academic life behind and joined the army with the pseudonym, Edgar A. Perry. That same year he published his first volume of poems: Tamerlane, and Other Poems. He followed up in 1829 with a newer book: Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. Poe’s foster mother died that same year, which may have convinced his foster father to help him get out of the army as a private and enroll in the US Military Academy at West Point. However, John Allan quickly remarried and disowned Edgar. Poe purposely decided to get court martialed and removed from West Point in 1831. After leaving West Point, Poe decided to pursue writing full-time—one of the first American writers to do so—and published his third book titled Poems. He focused on writing short stories for burgeoning periodicals and is today regarded as one of the masters of short story craft. Publishing short stories were only slightly more lucrative than poetry, so Poe started to work as a literary editor. At this time, Poe’s drinking and erratic behavior began to affect his relationships with other writers and formed the basis of slanderous accusations about alcohol and drug abuse that were widely spread by a literary rival (Rufus Wilmot Griswold) after his death. Controversially, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm in Richmond in 1836. It was still unusual in the 19th century for a girl of this age to be married, so a witness to the wedding put her age at 21. Poe likely married his cousin to protect her and his widowed aunt financially.

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The couple moved to Philadelphia, where Poe worked as an editor for the Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine. He continued to establish himself as a short story writer and poet. In 1838, he published his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, a story about a whaling vessel that served as an inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851). In 1840, Poe published his collected short stories in two volumes titled Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. These stories are marked by supernatural occurrences with gothic elements (“The Fall of the House of Usher”) and psychological tensions for the main characters (“William Wilson”). In 1844, the couple moved to New York, where Edgar worked for The New York Evening Mirror and later the Broadway Journal. Depending on their financial circumstances, they frequently moved to different boarding houses in the city. Around this time, Virginia started to show signs of illness with tuberculosis, the same disease that killed Poe’s mother and older brother. Edgar Allan Poe reached the height of literary success during his lifetime with the publication of “The Raven” in The New York Evening Mirror in 1845. The popularity of this poem allowed Poe to publish a new volume of poetry titled The Raven and Other Poems (1845). He also dabbled in literary criticism and crafted early literary theory starting with “The Philosophy of Composition” (1846) to accompany “The Raven.” His literary criticism made him as many enemies as friends, and Poe famously feuded with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His later collection of stories—Tales (1845)—features three stories that—according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—started the detective fiction genre: “The Murders at Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Purloined Letter.” Other stories—such as “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall”—are vital entries to the early science fiction genre, which later inspired H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. However, Poe’s literary success was not reflected in his personal life. He became the owner of the Broadway Journal, only to see it fold in 1846. Poe rented a quiet cottage in Fordham that year, but by early 1847, his wife died of consumption at 24. Devasted by Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became extremely depressed. He tried to get his life back on track by courting another poet and leaving New York for Richmond. By 1849, he was again engaged to his former sweetheart (who was also widowed), Sarah Elmira Royster, and was set to start an editing job in Philadelphia. Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore on October 7, 1849. To

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this day, it is unclear what caused his death, and the possible causes are widely debated. His writings were posthumously translated into French by Charles Baudelaire. This caused a resurgence in international interest in Poe’s work. Poe is now considered one of the first American writers to gain international fame. Poem Text 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? Poe, Edgar Allan. “A Dream Within a Dream.” 1849. Flag of Our Union. Summary

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The poem opens with the parting of two people—possibly two lovers—who are in the middle of a conversation about the speaker’s perception of the world. The speaker sees the real world in a dreamlike, optimistic state and struggles to remedy this with an unrealistic hope that is more grounded in reality. This speaker asserts that reality is false and human existence is embedded inside the realm of dreams. In the second stanza, the speaker takes the reader inside his dream, which has a harsh and tumultuous beach landscape during a storm. He tries to keep the sand on the shore in his grasp, but the grains slip through his hands as though through a sieve. The more the speaker attempts to preserve the sand in his hands, the more frustrated he becomes until he tips into melodrama at the futility of this action. At this point, the speaker calls out to God as a higher power to intervene in his mental and physical struggle. The poem concludes with questions, phrased as pleas to this higher power to restore his former dreamlike peace. The final question of this poem asks the reader to consider the different layers of reality that exist inside the individual human mind and in humanity itself: How do you know which reality is objectively true?

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Poem Analysis Analysis: “A Dream Within a Dream” “A Dream Within a Dream” is a Romantic lyric poem that asks the reader to consider a melancholy philosophical question about the nature of love and reality itself: what is real and what is a dream? As the poem opens, the poem’s speaker is leaving the person the poem addresses. The speaker offers this person a gentle “kiss upon the brow!” (Line 1). A kiss upon the forehead like this symbolizes friendship and affection. However, using an exclamation mark to create the end line implies that the speaker has more passion for the person they are kissing than friendship. The speaker and the poem’s addressee seem to be at the end of a meaningful conversation they have been having back and forth for some time. It appears that the speaker is trying to convince the “you” in the poem of something by swearing: “Thus much let me avow—” (Line 3) which echoes the language of a marital promise. However, the second person in the conversation does not take this proposal seriously. The poem’s addressee suggests to the speaker that he spends too much of his life dreaming and not grounded in material reality: “You are not wrong, who deem / That my days have been a dream;” (Lines 3-4). The listener’s indictment of the speaker could be interpreted as mistrust of his chosen career path; a professional writer—especially in the mid-19th century—would struggle financially. In a biographical context, Poe struggled with failed engagements before his marriage to Virginia and after her death. This poem uses language more adapted to courtship than the death of a spouse. “A Dream Within a Dream” was also published in 1849, two years after his wife’s death and when he was actively courting a second wife. His drinking—and the lack of control that accompanied it—plagued all his romantic relationships and intensified after Virginia’s death. This misuse of alcohol may also symbolize living in a dreamlike state outside of sobriety. A such, the poem could be read in the light of an emotionally and financially struggling suitor facing a wary prospect. Next, the speaker confirms that there has been a break between him and the other, so that

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“hope has flown away” and they cannot continue with their relationship (Line 6). He takes the accusation about living in a dream and pushes it back as a question. If hope has left their relationship, does it matter if it happened while dreaming or awake: “In a night, or in a day / In a vision, or in none” (Lines 7-8)? If the speaker had been more conscious of the reality of their situation, would that have changed the nature of their relationship? The hope they held between them is gone, which cannot change with any version of reality. The speaker closes the first stanza by insisting that reality is tenuous anyway: “All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream” (Lines 10-11). The listener cannot accuse him of dreaming through his life since all of what each person perceives as reality is specific to their viewpoint. In this case, one invents their reality based on what one can dream and imagine. The speaker asserts that they had hope in this living dreamworld and wanted to share it with the listener, but now it is gone. In the second stanza, Poe delves into the dream reality that corresponds to feelings of hopelessness. The setting of this reality is “amid the roar / Of a surf-tormented shore” (Lines 12-13) or a beach that is wracked by a storm. This sublime space of waves crashing on a stormy beach inspires awe and fear, a hallmark of landscapes in Romantic poetry. The speaker grabs at the ground to get their bearings in this uncertain space. Instead of solid earth or stone, they clutch at the golden sands of the beach. Sand may be soft and luxurious in nice weather, but it is unstable when pulled and dragged by a tempestuous sea. Likewise, the speaker finds the sand fleeting in their grasp and of little comfort: “How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep” (Lines 16-17). The grains of sand slipping through the speaker’s fingers are a symbol of futility as the speaker tries to hold onto hope and save something too small and fine for human hands. This sand belongs in the ocean, and like the lover, is pulled away from them. The loss of the sand—with the loss of their love—profoundly affects the speaker. They express grief by reiterating their emotions: “While I weep—while I weep!” (Line 18). This direct expression of emotion is another hallmark of 19th-century Romantic poetry. In this school of poetry, writers connected with their readers by appealing to shared human experience and emotion. The final six lines of the poem are a set of questions organized in rhyming couplets. These couplets have a dual purpose: to appeal the poet’s philosophical questions to a higher power

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and ask the reader to consider the poet’s plight and then find empathy through shared humanity. Sand slipping through fingers like a sieve is an apt metaphor for holding onto something, be it time, memory, or a personal relationship. First, the speaker asks: “Oh God! Can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp?” (Lines 19-20). They ask a universal question about human existence: how does one hold onto ephemeral or fleeting concepts when a person’s time on earth is so short? The speaker does not have a specific answer but leaves the question open ended. The speaker does not need to save everything from their existence from being pulled away, but asks “Oh God! Can I not save / One from the pitiless wave?” (Lines 21-22). Here, Poe appeals to a common theme among poets: preserving a part of oneself forever through poetry. This question of immortality is a direct descendant of Edmund Spenser’s “Amoretti LXXV” (Sonnet 75). In it, Spenser tries to write his love’s name in the sand of a beach, but the name keeps getting swept away by the tide. While his lover chides him for his vanity at marking immortal love on an impertinent substance like sand, he assures her that their names will live on through his verse. Ironically, while Poe’s speaker feels that they cannot preserve anything in the sand, the poem endures. Finally, Poe comes to the ultimate thesis of the poem: “Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?” (Lines 23-24). After expressing their mental state and instability, the speaker asks the reader to consider the psychological impermanence of the mind. If individual emotions and imaginations shape reality, whose existence is more real? This poem also invites the reader to consider their priorities about life: are material objects like a car or phone more real than intangible concepts like ideas or dreams? A car will rust and be replaced in ten years, while a poem like “A Dream Within a Dream” will endure for centuries.

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Contextual Analysis Literary Context Edgar Allan Poe is classified today as a central figure of the Romantic movement in the United States. The Romantic movement is a literary era generally spanning from 1800-1850 in the United States, which had a significant impact on the literary themes of the 19th century. This movement started in Europe in the mid-18th century as a reaction against Enlightenment ideals and Neoclassical poetry. Key figures in the English Romantic movement with works similar to Poe include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Shelley, and William Blake. Romantic poetry is less concerned with romantic love specifically. Characteristics of this movement include a shift away from rationality, focusing instead on imagination and emotions. Romanticism was also a reaction against the Industrial Revolution and considered the human relationship with nature. Many Romantic poets praise nature; Poe writes nature as an extreme version of the sublime. In his works, Poe considers nature’s danger and often grotesque power rather than meditating on nature’s grandeur. Because Poe rejected Transcendentalism—the main branch of Romanticism in the United States—he is often classified today as a pioneer of dark romanticism. While Transcendentalists believed that humankind could attain perfection through seeking wisdom and good deeds, dark romantics focused on the supernatural and how easily human beings could be corrupted by sin. Dark Romantics also viewed nature as dangerous and full of supernatural snares that could not be tamed. This is also a hallmark of American Romanticism, where the natural world was still mysterious to the descendants of white settlers and considered the space of the colonized other. This period’s prominent dark romantic authors are Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Emily Dickinson. “A Dream Within a Dream” was written at the end of the Romantic period and the end of Poe’s life. It fits precisely within his trademark dark romantic writing, featuring a dangerous and sublime landscape, as well as deep considerations of the poet’s imagination and emotion. The poem departs somewhat from his favorite poetic subject: the death of a beautiful woman. However, “A Dream Within a Dream” meditates on lost love and how this loss devastates the poet to the point where he questions the nature of reality. This loss fits with similar motifs in his other poems about a loss like “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven,” and “Ulalume.” It also offers weighty psychological and philosophical questions, similar to the ones put

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forward in short stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher” or “Ligeia.”

Historical Context The 1840s in the United States were a time of rapid technological growth and change caused by the Industrial Revolution. Steamboats and railroads were connecting the country. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, causing a significant migration in 1849. This is one possible reading for the “golden sand” in the poem (Line 15). However, like the sand, the gold dust found proved less substantial for most migrants to the gold rush than expected. The American Civil War was still more than a decade away. Poe died the same year the poem was published, so his writing rarely touched on the question of slavery. His critique of human existence was based more on individual failings than large-scale societal failures like slavery. Tuberculous was a widespread public health concern in 19th century America. Symptoms of this lung disease include a chronic cough, mucus containing blood, fever, sweats, and weight loss. It was sometimes called consumption because of the rapid loss of weight and occasionally disturbing ethereal beauty (pale skin and bright red cheeks) exhibited by ...