Alex Assignment #2

The following is a poem from the creative mind of one Edgar Allan Poe. It entitled "A 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?

This is my personal favorite from Edgar Allan Poe. I like it because of the dark mood and the concept of false reality that the narrator seems to experience. In a way his private perpetual torment. This results in feeling of being astray. Dreams are supposed to be an escape from consciousness but the narrator in a way has an escape from an escape. There is definitely pathos because it makes you think about the possibility that if you're dreams are not safe then what is? What exactly is the fine line between illusion and reality? You get a definite sense of false security, and that applies to the ethos because every experiences dreams. The overall message of hopelessness and the potential of it happening to everybody adds a much more grim tone to it. Dreams are the time when our own truths are escaped and anything from Cocoa Puffs to evil mutated hot dogs taking over the universe with hot batter can come to life. Our dreams are uniquely what we call our own and with that lies the fear of what happens when that is taken from us. Like the Chris Nolan film "Inception" without the suspenseful ending.