I'm currently working on my final paper of the semester (not counting my final, that is) for my English Composition course. This paper is different from anything that I've ever done before and I'm looking forward to see how it turns out. I'm working on doing a poetic analysis for a poem of my choosing.
I know most people don't really enjoy poetry, so most people would find this to be another form of torture. I, as you all know, am not most people. Names such as "Poe" and "Dickinson" and "Longfellow" and "Shakespeare" and "Frost" are more of a comfort to me. I think of poetry and I think of elegance and beauty. It reminds me of images and pictures. Poetry is a beautiful way of communicating that no other form of writing can achieve.
The poem I picked is Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream Within a Dream." I've always been a Poe fan and this poem just seemed to stick out to me more than all of the hundreds of other poems that I read trying to find the one I wanted to write about. So, for your reading pleasure, is Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream Within a Dream."
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?
I am analysing this poem myself at the moment. I think there are hints that the poet is lamenting the loss of a loved one (kiss on the brow & parting), as well as feeling helpless (can't hold onto sand tight enough).
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