Edgar Allan Poe
that guy that likes ravens
Literary Devices
-In A Dream, in line 2, Poe writes "I have dreamed of joy departed". What this means is he has dreamed, and in said dream, his happiness has evaded him, and he accepts this, welcomes it even.
-In lines 10 and 11, he says "...While all the world were chiding...Hath cheered me as a lovely beam". This means that his dream about the world's scorn, or being scorned by the world, cheers him, as odd as it sounds.
-In Dreams, lines 1-2, he says "Oh! That my young life were a lasting dream!/My spirit not awakening, until the beam". He means as a child/teen he was oblivious to the harsh realities of the world, not understanding that life isn't all sorrow and drama.
-In lines 4-5, Poe states "Yes! Tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow/'Twere better than the cold reality". This means that even though his dreamed up reality was depressing and sad, drab and dark all of the time, it was much better than what he actually faced in the world when his eyes opened.
-In A Dream Within A Dream, lines 6-9, Poe says "Yet if hope has flown away...In a vision or in none/Is it therefore the less gone?" This represents his questioning of, if he lost hope in something unreal, then has he really lost hope?
-In lines 21-22, he states "Oh God! Can i not save/One from the pitiless wave?" These lines stand for his frustration with why the uncaring wave of loss of happiness always takes his hope and joy regardless of his efforts to prevent it.
(continued)
-In A Dream, line 9, Poe describes "That holy dream that holy dream". This inspires the idea that a dream can become holy or saintly, or at least extremely important to an individual.
-In line 10, he talks of "While all the world were chiding". This gives merit to the idea that not necessarily the people, but the world itself can chastise and individual.
-In Dreams, line 24, Poe says "Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon". He refers to the feeling that overcame him as a female, implying that it is a sentient being of sorts.
-In line 29, he says "Dreams! In their vivid coloring of life". This paints an image of dreams being vibrant extravagant beings in their own way.
-In A Dream Within A Dream, Poe says, line 16, "How few! yet how they creep!', and he is making the 'sand' grains seem as though they are crawling away from him, trying desperately to escape his grasp for hope.
-In lines 12 and 13, he says "I stand amid the roar/Of a surf tormented shore". He gives the shore feelings with this statement, calling it tormented and battered.
Syntax
A Dream, lines 9-12- "That holy dream that holy dream/While all the world were chiding/Hath cheered me as a lovely beam/A lonely spirit guiding"
The rhyme here is used to improve the flow of the reading, and therefore make the point hit home harder.
Dreams, lines 1-4- "Oh! That my young life were a lasting dream!/My spirit not awakening till the beam/Of an eternity should bring the morrow/Yes! Though that long dream were of hopeless sorrow"
Poe uses this different rhyme scheme to bring around the theme of depression and sorrow by rhyming sorrow with morrow, making the arrival of tomorrow seem to bring depression and misery with it.
A Dream Within A Dream, lines 6-9- "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?"
Here, Poe uses this rhyme pattern to accentuate the emphasis on his realization before stating it openly; is it (his misery, torment, and loss of hope) real?
Theme! YAAAYYY!!!! Right...?
The three poems all have a similar idea about them; if you dream that you have become hopeless, or weak, or depressed, but then kick yourself back into reality, then are you really depressed, weak, or hopeless? Or did you trick yourself into believing you are? Reality is an ugly truth you must face. In A Dream, "In the visions of the dark night/I have dreamed of joy departed/But a waking dream of life and light/ Hath left me broken-hearted" is said. He is saying that he dreamed of losing happiness and finding pleasure in it, but as he awakes, he finds he has not found such pleasure, that his own mind tricked him. In Dreams, he states "Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!/My spirit not awakening till the beam...Yes! Tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow/'Twere better than the cold reality". He states that his young life he believed in a folly depressive state, but reality was much colder. In A Dream Within A Dream "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?" is said. This is explaining how, if his days have been only a dream, then is his hope really all lost? The general theme of the border between reality and dream being blurred is prevalent throughout this series of poems.