Free Form Poem: A Dream within a Dream

Norhenriady, an English teacher from Amuntai, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, analyzes a poem created by Edgar Allan Poe. He likes the poem because it has deep meaning and touchable his heart and whomever readers. Furthermore, he states that sometimes we feel or even experience the situation just like the poem. Sometimes we ever lost someone or something we love in our life. The poem inspires everyone about how precious the life is. Additionally, it is suitable for students of Junior High School until university.

Although some of sentences are not familiar with junior school students, it can be comprehended by skimming reading. The learning process can study about difficult words or new vocabulary, a few of the content like in finding theme or moral message from the poem. For Senior high school or university students, it can be added and improved with the use of language, the figure of speech, the pattern of rhythm and stanza, the idea and the summarize of the poem.

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
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.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

1.  Poetic type :

     The poem actually is a free form poem but it also a rhymed verse form poem. 

2.  Paraphrase:

     a.  The writer lost his lovers that left him all alone. He is kissing his wife goodbye after she has died, and he has distraught feeling that life is unreal, as a dream in a dream. Then he goes with his grief wondering why God would not give him the power to hold onto the grains of sand that slide through his fingers to the ocean.

     b.  The life is precious and that he should try to hold on to it, but sometimes, death comes upon him like the surf and takes the sand of his life away with it. The life is just a dream and death is an awakening. He then says that, if we are lucky, we will be remembered when we die. Otherwise the dark wave of death will come and wash away his sand, the memories and elements of his past life.

3.  Poetic devices :

     a.  Rhyme scheme :

          Type of rhyme of the poem is End rhyme, because its rhyme mostly places at the end of the stanza.

          The poem consists of nine couplets (pairs of rhyming lines) and two triplets (groups of three rhyming lines). The opening stanza, for example, begins with a triplet, then shifts to couplets, as follows:

          Triplet:

          Take this kiss upon the brow!

          And, in parting from you now,              

          Thus much let me avow—

          Couplet:

          You are not wrong, who deem

          That my days have been a dream;

          In the first stanza, the rhyme is a-a-a b-b c-c d-d e e, while in the second stanza, the rhyme is a-a b-b c-c-c d-d e-e f-f

     b.  Rhythm pattern :

          The poem has iambic rhythm.

          Some rhythms in this poem are:

          -    In a night, or in a day,

               In a vision, or in none

               The writer tries to stress the words in the beginning of both in the first  sentence and the second sentence. The word “in” will make some loud voice to make the stressing of those sentences.

          -    O God! can I not grasp

              O God! can I not save

              The repetitionof the two words “oh God” makes some stress to focus more on particular sentences which is shown that the writer wants to get the reader to focus attention by saying “oh God”. This means that the writer desperately having hopes to God.

     c.  Stanza form :

          The poem is 24 lines, divided into two stanzas. The first stanza shows the first-person point of view of the writer parting from a lover, while the second places the writer on a beach while futilely attempting to grasp a handful of sand in his hand. Besides, both of the stanzas have 6 or 7 syllables each line.

     d.  Alliteration :

          deem, days, dream (Stanza 1) hope has (Stanza 1, Line 6), seen or seem (Stanza 1, Line 10), dream within a dream (Stanza 1, Line 11), hold within my  hand (Stanza 2, Line 3), Grains of golden sand (Stanza 2, Line 4), While I weep–while I weep (Stanza 2, Line 7).

     e.  Onomatopoeia : none

     f.  Repetition :

          -    In a night or in a day

              In a vision or in none (Stanza 1),

          -    O God! can I not grasp
          O God! can I not save (Stanza 2)

          -    While I weep--while I weep! Stanza 2)

          The writer uses “While I Weep” that repeated twice indicates that he is crying and possibly in pain. At the same time, the reputation of this hopeless phrase creates a feeling of depression. He uses repetition to create a feeling of melancholy.  

     g.  Comparison : Metaphor and personification

4.  Poetic diction :

     a.  Imagery :

     b.  Metaphor :

          -    “shore and wave” represent the forces of life.

          -    "few" "grains" of "golden sand" that "creep through" the writer's  "fingers" represent the beautiful moments or time that the writer wishes lasted  forever most of his life.

          -    I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore and I hold within my hand grains of the golden sand. Both sentences represent how sad and pain he is.

     c.  Personification:

             -     The “sand” (in stanza 2) can be compared to sand in an hourglass, and his hand can be compared to an hourglass. As the sand passes between his fingers, time is running out.

          -    “… hope has flown away”

5.  Setting :

     This poem uses the sea as a setting for a discussion of death and decay

     For example: "surf-tormented shore", “golden sand”, “…wave”

6.  Tone  :

     The tone or author's attitude in this poem is the despair, the distress or even sometime the frustration and the depression.

     Some of the language imputing the despair includes:
"surf-tormented shore"
"While I weep! Oh God!"
"Pitiless wave"

      Because:

      When Poe was young, he fell in love with a fellow student’s mother but was severely depressed when the woman passed away. This depression most likely caused him to write this poem with melancholy. This poem was also influenced by the death of his mother when he was child. His mother death and it destroyed his sprit, causing him to go mad and drink excessively. Several deaths influenced his sorrowful poetry.

7.  Symbol  :

     a.  “A dream” symbolizes something which a person cannot possess, for this reason it becomes so desirable and attractive

     b.  “Grains of the golden sand” symbolize days of our life

     c.  The “kiss” to be a symbol of the last kiss to someone on their deathbed

8.  Theme :

     The lost hopes (hopelessness) or the lost love

9.  Message : 

     a.  Life is precious and that we should try to hold on to it

     b.  We should do the best and useful thing for the others  

     c.  No love is immortal and no man is immortal

     d.  We should realize that reality sometime is impermanent and nothing more than a dream.

10.Comment   :

     a.  It has deep meaning and touchable my heart to whomever readers. Sometime we feel or even experience the situation just like the poem above. Sometime we ever lost someone or something we love in our life. The poem inspires everyone about how precious the life is.

     b.  It is suitable for students of Junior High School until university. Although some of sentences are not familiar with junior school students, it can be comprehended by skimming reading. The learning process can study about difficult words or new vocabulary, a few of the content like finding theme or moral message from the poem. For Senior high school or university students, it can be added or improved with the use of language, the figure of speech, the pattern of rhythm and stanza, the idea and the summarize of the poem.