Poetry Presentation By: Raj Mehta

Edgar Allan Poe

Biography Father deserted him and his mother at a very young age Mother gave birth to a daughter, rumored to be by another man Mother fell seriously ill and died with her children present Poe became an orphan and went to a family called the Richmond's The "father" John Allan and Poe never got along, neither trusted the other

Cont. Poe moved around constantly as a child Hated his education and described it as dreary Went into the military and got into debt when he was in school in Virginia His entire life was a struggle with heartbreak, distrust, alcoholism, and gambling He thought his life dragged on; overall a depressed man Influenced his writing style

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Deep Voice Reading

Wordle Wordle

Analysis of Elements of Form Word choice within the poem is very reflective of dream state. Words like vision, flown away, golden sand Kept the poem short I think to mimic what a dream is like A dream is short in real time; but seems quite long. Thus with two long stanzas he can represent both what a dream feels like and what it is like in reality At the end of the poem he starts to ask questions of himself; Can he not save the sand from washing away? Is life really nothing more than just a dream within a dream? This seems to represent the hopelessness he feels in regards to life; he cannot hold on to reality, life, or perhaps happiness long enough

Analysis of Poem's Meaning Obviously he views that his life is passing him by like a dream It seems he is of the opinion that life is unreal to him; he is living a hopeless world where try though he might, nothing is good enough He talks about the idea that he has lost hope Perhaps he means that through his dilusions of reality, he has lost in hope in what is real and what is not real If we look at his life it seems fairly evident how he could view his life as a bad dream, slowly slipping away from him

Analysis Cont. Poe also talks about a surf-tormented shore This seems to me his life being washed away by the dream life he is living It seems that by saying he is living in a dream he means that his life has produced no real results He has lived his life hoping for something greater, dreaming for something greater, but has not found a way to achieve these hopes and desires. The most important element for me is him talking about the golden sand This seems to represent the golden sands of time and for Poe they seem to be ever slipping away He only has a short time to turn his life around, a short time to become happy

Personal Response My personal feeling is that this poem prompts us to live a life where each second counts. This is how we turn life as a dream, life where we just go through the motions, into something bigger, better, and more realistic. The dream he was talking about was obviously no dream. It was him crying out to all of us, his readers, that we should learn from him. Life is not about being hopeless and in so being losing life, it is about finding happiness and letting go of the grains of sand, life, when the time is right. When we reach a point where we realize we will be happy leaving.

Bibliography http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01302.html http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237388 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxg7OFFtWQE http://www.wordle.net/create