Worksheet (GLA for revision 1)

Date: - 02-04-2020

The above poem is written by Edgar Allan Poe (1849). This poem
annotates the idea that life is dream within a dream. Also, this poem
explores the idea that life is an illusion which far away from the reality.
The poem has no fixed place or time. The poet used many literary
conventions to emphasize the theme. He used Theme, Setting, tone,
mood, alliteration, rhyme scheme, symbol and personification.

Firstly, the poem revolves around the poet’s confusion whether life is
reality or a dream. He explores that reality is an illusion. The poet asks if
the life(reality) is dream within a dream. The poem begins with the
protagonist of the poem saying goodbye or leaving someone who is very
close to his heart. The other person said that the protagonist was living in
an illusion(dream) and the narrator agrees to that. At the end of first
stanza the narrator confesses that everything we get(life) is just a dream
within a dream and it is far away from reality.

Secondly, the poem doesn’t have a stable sense of time and place. We
should consider the fact the setting is that these are thoughts of the
speaker’s mind, which is trying to differentiate reality from dream. The
first stanza takes place in a farewell kind of moment where the
protagonist is saying goodbye to that friend or a lover which is not evident
in the poem. The second stanza is set in silent place where no one is with
him showing his pain of separation from the person. This place is
appealed to be a beach which can be understood from the line “Of a surf-
tormented shore,” There is another possibility that this all happened within
the speaker’s mind. In this setting the poet used the convention
symbolism to make the meaning clear. For example, the “fall of golden
grains of sand” is a symbol of passing the time.
The poem is written in sad and depressed tone. The speaker sees his life as
a false life and says it as a dream within in a dream. The poem is written
in form of two stanzas with eleven and thirteen lines in them respectively.
The stanzas aren’t same length and the rhyme scheme is different for the
both of the stanzas. The rhyme scheme of first stanza is AAABBCCDDEE
and for the second stanza it is AABBCCCDDEEFF. When we see that the
established pattern of rhyme scheme is breaking at different breaks of the
stanzas. This gives the poem a riddle liked sound and the poet used
metaphorical links in the poem. In both stanzas the last lines end with
“seem” and “dream” which combines the speaker’s dilemma of whether
life is (seem) what it appears to be or life is dream within aa dream.

The poem consists of different poetic devices such as metaphor, imagery,

alliteration and personification. The whole poem can be a metaphor as
the speaker says that life is a dream. Also, metaphor can be seen in the
line “yet, how they creep” here sand is compared to a creepy object.
Imagery makes the readers to visualize the poet’s feeling which can be
observed in many phrases of the poem such as “kiss upon the brow”, “grains
of golden sand” and “pitiless waves.” Imagery in this poem helps the readers
to feel the pain undergone by the speaker. Alliteration is almost present
in every line of the poem, few examples are- While I weep — while I weep!
and Grains of the golden sand. The poet used Personified hope in the line
“Yet if hope has flown away” Here the poet has given a human quality to
hope and ability to fly. The poet used Refrain in the poem for the phrase
“A dream within a dream.”

The speaker’s information is not clearly shown in this poem but he is

shown as person with deep doubts about the reality of life. The speaker
expresses more of his helplessness about his life. In the first stanza he is
shown as a sad person because he is leaving his beloved friend or lover.
After the person leaves the speaker starts questioning about the existence
of life and life as a dream. In the second stanza the speaker is shown as an
isolated person who is sad holding grains of sand. Ironically, he compares
his life to the falling grains of sand. He questions God to lead him to the
reality of life which is a dream within in dream.