Edgar Allan Poe's Life

The Meaning of Life Portrayed Through “A Dream Within A Dream” Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer during the 1800s whose “life was filled with poverty, mental illness, disappointments and tragedies” (Reiff 1). Poe is famous for a number of “tales and poems that imply horror and mystery” (Biography.com Editors). The reason that Poe wrote in such a horrifying and mournful manner is because of his childhood and how he was raised. With both of his parents being gone at such a young age, Poe only knew of the heartbreaking and devastating things in life. “The only thing that gave Poe passion was poetry,” and the reader can see this in all the different aspects of literature that he wrote (Reiff 1).“A Dream Within A Dream” was one of Poe’s best
works, the poem has a big impact to many people because the poem talks about how existence in life has no meaning, by using imagery, and how a human life can slip away in a blink of an eye. Poe’s ability to portray the meaning of “our existence in life is insubstantial,” which is lacking strength and solidity, shows that a human goes through difficult times in their life each day (Reiff 2).
For Poe, his difficult times we're having to grow up being raised by guardians that were not his real parents because both of his parents either died or left at a young age. Also his stepdad treated him harshly and this caused all of his writing to be about devastating situations in people’s lives. The direction of Poe’s life at the time when he first completed the poem “helped to shape the different feelings expressed” by the author throughout the poem (Cummings). Poe uses personification in the poem that states, “Yet if hope has flown away,” stating that the days that he spent with this person are gone and he can never get them back (line 6). By doing this, Poe gave the poem a more sentimental meaning helping to attach to the reader more as if this certain situation is happening or has already happened in that person’s life. Critics have said the poem states that “as the poem is dissected for evaluating the mood, motivation and inherent upheavals his life underwent” it also shows that Poe has been “traumatized by the events that he embarks” throughout the entire poem (Rood). As Poe express the meaning of life lacking strength and solitude,he also goes into detail on how difficult everyday of life can be no matter what obstacle the person is going
through. As Poe develops the theme and imagery throughout the poem, “A Dream Within A Dream,” he implies that a human life can slip away as fast as a blink of an eye. In the poem, Poe describes that “Grains of golden sand-Through my fingers to the deep,” which implies that people can be gone as fast as sand falling out of the hands (15-17). As life goes on the reader finds out that “so many things that happen in life are out of reach” and are not able to be obtained by everybody (Edgar). Poe uses the imagery of the sand falling out of one's hand to help the reader to understand exactly how fast life can change and how quickly situations can happen in life and there is nothing that can be done about the situations. Poe also states that life is “Unfulfilled hopes and dreams and they frustrate and discourage the speaker” (Cummings). Poe uses “A Dream Within a Dream” to end both stanzas to show the reader of the importance that, “indeed life is but a dream though we dream of so many desires,” and sometimes those desires and wishes are not able to be fulfilled (Edgar). Poe is expressing throughout the poem that there is an invitation to enjoy the moments that life gives the reader instead of just watching the important things in the life slip away so fast.
As the poem continues, the speaker’s experiences dealing with the perceptions of lIfe and the effects of time trigger some of the five senses to help show the meaning of life and how quickly it can be permanently gone. One of the five senses that Poe uses in the poem is sight when it refers to “I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore,” showing the visual of a wave crashing upon a shore (12-13). The use of the sight sense here in the poem helps the reader to visualize how fast a wave can come onto shore and leave so quickly as if it has no meaning because there are others to come. The ocean shore is compared to the waves pounding on the ground all the time and causing erosion on it through the phrase “surf-tormented shore,” to imply that the writer has gone through experiences that have caused traumatic mental or physical suffering (13). The author also uses natural elements like sand to show that life can be gone at any minute and something that was there before may be disappear fast. Critics have said that the poem is referring to “a dream long lost and fading as time passes,” which means that the writer is wanting the reader to understand that as time passes dreams are likely to fade away (Rood). Certainly, Poe had the reason to “experience frustration, disappointment, and confusion throughout his life” and to write about it in all of his poems and literature (Cummings). Poe talks about the time of day in lines seven and eight of the poem, stating that “whether it’s day or night, when hope is gone, all is gone with it” emphasizing that no matter what time of day something is lost or misplaced, it can be gone forever (Rood). Poe’s noting of all the natural elements and five senses throughout the poem is promoting the belief that the perceptions of life and the effects of time can be gone as fast as waves coming onto the shore and crashing.
In addition to continuing to explain the meaning of life, the narrator expresses how the rhyme scheme of the poem relates to the rest of the poem and how Philosophical evidence helps the reader to understand the importance of the poem.
Disparagers have noted that “the dream hypothesis was first discussed in Western literature by Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece about a zillion years ago” (“A Dream Within a Dream”). Critics have found out that “according to the poet, this world and all existing life is an illusion of sorts as reality doesn’t exist” making life to seem insubstantial and have no meaning (Rood). A chain of situations in Poe’s life could have caused the “melancholia and resentment” feeling that is obviously found in the poem, but it could also have been “a product of musing” which means that Poe just wrote it to get into people’s feelings and make them feel as if they are living in a life filled with fraud (Cummings). The whole poem is a “juxtaposition of iambic tetrameter and anapests strewn into one poem” (Edgar). With the use of rhyme scheme and philosophical evidence throughout the poem, it helps to give it a dreamy and hazy effect that is made through the change of setting from a concrete setting to a symbolic dreamscape.
Within the short two stanza lyric poem “A Dream Within a Dream” which is one of his prime work, Poe, illustrates in the poem that a human life is slipping away like sand falling out of one’s hand. Poe is considered to be a despondent person
and only writes in a mournful manner due to all of the negatives situations and disappointments that his life has given him. “A Dream Within a Dream” reminds readers about the use of different rhymes schemes, imagery, and senses to help get the point across that perceptions of life and the effects of time are a big deal on how a person lives their life.