The Theme Of Isolation In Edgar Allan Poe's Poetry

Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry seems to always carry a heavy tone of sadness, themes of a longing for lost love, death, and isolation. In his poems “A dream within a dream” and “Alone” the tone and themes previously stated are undoubtedly represented. Both poems also feature a first-person narrator and that suggest it is Poe himself. Poe had a distinct style in his poems that use vivid imagery, metaphors, rhythm, and repetitive tone that pulls the reader into a world that is very dark and extremely sad. While both poems share the same theme of isolation, a struggle between reality and thought, and the use of first person narrator there are some differences on how Poe chooses to represent the feeling of isolation and how it occurs. I will be using the similarities of both poems and also some of their differences to prove
There is always a theme of isolation in his poems and with titles such a “Alone” and “A dream within a dream” it evokes a feelings of disconnection. In “Alone”, Poe writes that the feeling of isolation is somewhat haunting. Lines in the poem relate this theme of isolation and detachment such as “From childhood’s hour I have not been/As others were; I have not seen/As others saw; I could not bring/My passions from a common spring.” (1-4). There is a feeling that being alone has always been a common thing throughout the speakers life and in the poem “A Dream within a Dream” this feeling of isolation and detachment reappear. Poe writes that after leaving someone behind for the the last time, whether it is due to death or some other type of loss, there is a feeling of abandonment. “A Dream within a Dream” use lines that show how the speaker examines the world and somewhat outcasted with their thinking, “And, in parting from you now/Thus much let me avow-/You are not wrong, who deem/That my days have been a dream;”