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Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream” Poem Analysis

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Edgar Allen Poe once wrote, “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” Poe’s words haunt anyone who has read his genius works. Inspiration of these fantastic feats of literature comes from his truly sad and hurting soul. Poe’s life was filled with love and loss. Many of the women whom he loved dearly were brutally taken from him by Death and disease. This constant loss forced into Poe’s mind the pressure of defeat, a theme seen throughout many of his poems. In “A Dream Within a Dream,” Edgar Allen Poe uses setting, meter, and figurative language to express his persistent theme that any attempt to determine if reality is truly what it seems will end in utter defeat. Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream” is a deep, thought-provoking poem. The speaker begins by offering a kiss to say goodbye to an unknown person. By not mentioning the person’s name, they seem almost invisible, possibly not real. He then continues to tell the unknown person that they are not wrong in saying that all of his days have been a dream. The speaker then asks a rhetorical question, pondering if hope is gone in a day, a night, “a vision,” or none, if it is less gone. He then goes on to say that “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” In the next stanza the speaker is standing on a loud beach holding sand in his hand. The sand keeps slipping through his hands and he cannot grasp on to

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