Dimension: Reading Skills
Text: "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allen Poe
When I read the title of the poem, I couldn't help but predict that the poem was about the ways dreams are similar to reality and can be confused for reality. I also predicted that it would be about the feeling of peacefulness when dreaming, the terror of nightmares, and how these can be perceived as real.
One question I have is this: What inspired the poet to write this poem? Was it an actual dream or was not being able to control the state of his dream a metaphor for other helplessness in his life? I support the latter theory. I think dreams are an excellent metaphor for helplessness because I am never able to control my dreams.
I also wonder if Edgar Allen Poe used the "grains of golden sand" slipping through his fingers were a metaphor for waking from a dream. They could mean that he dislikes losing the golden feeling of dreaming. On a deeper level, they could represent things that you have started, but not finished.
I also made several connections to this poem. One was to the movie "Inception" which was about the confusion of being in a dream and the loss of reality that comes with it, similar to this poem. Dreams are used in many pieces of literature because they are excellent symbols. They can allow the author to indirectly characterize a character, using their underlying thoughts and intentions and thoughts toward a subject.
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This might make me weird but I absolutely ADORE this poem. The dark moodiness captures Poe's madness and bouts of sorrowful sanity. Your "questions" are quite thought provoking. I would just generalize the sand as anything precious to the author.
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