Poe's Background
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts in January of 1809. Both of his parents were actors and became he became an orphan when his mother died and his father abandoned Poe's family. Edgar Poe was never formally adopted, but he was taken into the family of John Allan. Edgar Poe was later christened into an Episcopalian church with the name "Edgar Allan Poe". Poe enlisted in the United States Army when he published his first poem collection called Tamerlane, and Other Poems. After the army, he went into the United States Military Academy, but was later forced to leave. Although Edgar Allan Poe had John Allan as a "father" it was almost as if he was never there for Poe. Edgar Allan Poe got many jobs as editor and literary critic for many different publishers including for Southern Literary Messenger, Gentlemen's Magazine, Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia, and the Broadway Journal in New York City. During his times of being an editor and literary critic, he moved to Richmond with his aunt and cousin named Virginia. Virginia, who was fourteen at the time, married Poe. After his marriage, Edgar Allan Poe established himself as a short story writer and poet. During this time, Poe published some of his most well-known pieces including The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Perhaps one of his most famous poems, The Raven, was also published at this time.
Poe's Works
Edgar Allan Poe was known for his poems and short stories of horror and tragedy. Most of his poems were about murder, going insane, or the depressing side of life. A lot of factors contribute to him having this style of writing, but the most important reason is because in his early stages of life, he faced a lo of betrayal, misfortune, and health problems. The Raven, a popular poem written by Poe, tells of a man who has lost his loved one. He hears a tapping at his chamber door and he opens it in hopes of finding his lost love. Instead he finds "darkness there and nothing more". The raven in this poem signifies him going insane, the constant tap-tap-tapping at his door.
Poe's Influences and Legacy
Poe's influences for his genre of writing was connected to his tragic life. A long with many other authors, he told stories of his own life indirectly through a narrator. The Raven is an example of his tragic life being portrayed through his poetry. Edgar Allan Poe lost his wife and in this poem, the narrator tells of a man that is physiologically unstable because he misses his wife. As Poe grew older, reality hit him hard. His writing became more depressing and darker. Many reasons contribute to this change in writing, but perhaps the largest contributor was his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Combining his unstable mindset, depressing love life, and his experimentation with drugs and alcohol, he perhaps created some of the most scariest poems up to date.
Today Poe is mostly associated with advancing modern literature, especially horror and tragedies. He further developed the well-known genre of science fiction that is known today. His legacy lives on and his poem, The Raven, is one of the most well known poems in American Literature. Some of Poe's most horrifying poems such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum. Poe's legacy lives on even after more than one hundred year and he continues to be one of the most well-known poets in American Literature.
Further readings about Edgar Allan Poe
http://www.poemuseum.org
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edgar-allan-poe
http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/edgar-allan-poe
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?
Works Cited:
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Information
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
Poets.org. Academy of American Poeta, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
"Articles." Mystery Scene. N.p., n.d. Web 02 Apr. 2015.
"The American Literary Blog." : The Many Names of Poe. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
"Edgar Allan Poe | Biography - American Writer." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
"Edgar Allan Poe." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
WiseGeek. Conjecture, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
In the poem "A Dream Within A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe, he portrays through the narrator that everything in a dream becomes an allusion to reality. In the first stanza, the narrator is parting from his loved one. The narrator tells his loved one that she is not wrong for telling him that he has been living all of his days in a dream. From this, the man accepts the fact that his reality has been altered by the allusion of a dream. Then the narrator begins to question if hope is truly in reach or if it has disappeared like his reality. His perception of life has been masked by the dreams he dreams. He can no longer tell what is a dream and what is reality. Hope in this case could also mean someone that he has lost; perhaps has died unexpectedly. In lines 10-11, the narrator is referring to being physiologically unstable. "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" means that life isn't actually life, its a dream filled with allusions. In the second stanza, the narrator stands at a shore with huge waves crashing on the sand; a tormented shore. As he stands on this shore, he picks up a handful of sand and calls it golden sand. This sand represents hope that although life's reality is masked by dreams, there is possibility for life to become real again. But the narrator realizes that there are few grains of that golden sand that he picked up, and how it is slipping through his fingers. His fingers represent the fingers of the world, how every person has a hand full of golden sand, but it is all slipping between the cracks. The speaker gets emotional about how he has only a few grains of sand left in his hand; he weeps. He asks if there is some possibility to hold onto those grains of sand with a tighter grip. This represents that no matter how tight you hold the sand, it will always fall through your fingers. He asks if it is possible to keep at least one grain of sand from the endless ocean, but then he realizes that all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
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