Allan Poe’s poem represents his life, which he believes was “a Dream Within a Dream”. Author links his poem to his life by telling us that he had a hard life and lost a lot of family members, but that we can only discover by looking in depth to his biography. He suggests to reader that his life was “a dream within a dream” but after reading the poem reader may suggest that this dream wasn’t the good one, narrator hopes that it was a dream, but it appears to be for real. The setting takes place at the shore of the ocean; he is holding grains of sand and crying. He is trying to prevent sand from running out of his hands as it represents a life passing by him, narrator never mentions if this life is his or his friend but we can assume that it’s a life of his closest friend.
The structure Poe’s poem “A Dream within a Dream” consists of two stanzas, the first stanza written in first-person. It talks about narrator’s separation from loved person; the second stanza is different from the first one. In the second stanza author is already at the ocean shore talking about his feelings and his powerless against the time. The second half of the poem is more passionate and shows authors feelings and emotions were there the first part is more relaxed and powerless.
The first stanza contains less literary elements. It leaves the reader questioning what the narrator is talking about and why is he so powerless and depressed. The opening of the poem symbolizes death: “Take this kiss upon the brow!”- Because only dead people are kissed upon the brow. With authors word choice we can already say from the beginning that the tone of poem is negative. Also Poe is using Personification in line number six: “hope has flown away”- he is personifying hope being a bird.
Second stanza is more emotional; narrator is expressing his feelings to reader by using first person. Also he uses a metaphor in line number two, “Surf-tormented shore”- which represents life in general. At the end of this poem he uses imagery to help the reader to image this situation in their heads. Poe wants to save the moments which are shared with that person and doesn’t want to let grains “life” to disappear from his hands.
