Edgar Allan Poe Reflection Blog

The poem that I chose to read for my reflection blog was "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was really cool. It was kind of hard to understand at first, but after reading Dawn Sova's literary analysis of the poem, it became easier to understand. According to Sova's literary analysis, this poem was written shortly before Edgar Allan Poe's death. When this poem was written, Poe was struggling with the thought that what he was seeing and experiencing in his life was not reality, but in fact, a dream (Sova). In his poem he says,

“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.” (Poe)

In this passage of his poem, I think that what Poe is trying to say is that it does not really matter if what he is seeing and experiencing is just a dream or if it really is reality, because in a sense, it is all real. For example, when he says

“if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in non,

Is it therefore the less gone?” (Poe)

I think that here he is saying that no matter if you lost hope in a dream or in reality, the hope is still lost and it is still gone. It’s like when you wake up from a dream and in your dream, you got in a fight with your friend, you wake up and you still feel like you are mad at that person. He is saying that if you lose hope in a dream, you still feel that feeling of lost hope in real life when you wake up. I think that what Poe is saying is very interesting.

The poems that Edgar Allan Poe wrote were examples of dark romanticism. According to an analysis of what dark romanticism is written by Abby Werlock, dark romanticism is characterized by literature including magic, chivalry, mystery, terror, the irrational, and the perverse. The poem “A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe does not include many of these characteristics. It does include mystery in it. A theme of this poem is the difference between dreams and reality. This is mysterious because dreams are very mysterious. In his poem, Poe ponders whether all of his experience and pretty much his whole life has just been a dream the whole time. It is a mystery to him whether he has been living in reality for his whole life. I think that this poem was an interesting one. If you think about this poem a lot, you begin to convince yourself that maybe Poe was right and how do you really know that all of your life experiences have not just been created in your own mind? What if your whole life has really just been a dream?

Poe, Edgar Allen. "A Dream Within A Dream." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. 31 Dec. 2002. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. .

Werlock, Abby H. P. "gothic." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS391&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 18, 2012).

Sova, Dawn B. "'A Dream within a Dream'." Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ffazpoe037801&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 18, 2012).