Poetry Critique

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dream-within-a-dream/

Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avowYou 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 sandHow 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?

2. I selected this poem because I found the meaning of it very interesting. It took a few times reading it to fully understand however with time, I feel I understand what Poe was attempting to convey. After understanding the poem, it made it much more likeable because the complex meaning and intersesting narrative.
3. This title fits this poem perfectly. The whole meaning of the poem is how we are not living real lives; we are forever stuck in such a meaningless dream in which nothing is ever true. After reading the poem the title makes much more sense and comes together to work well. I could not think of a more suitable title for this poem and I feel without the title it has, the poem would not be so much what it is now. It would be missing something.
4. In this poem, Edgar Allen Poe does an excellent job of using imagery. In the lines: "I stand amid the roar, Of a surf-tormented shore." I think that little pieces of imagery such as this that are short yet describe so well are what makes Poe such an excellent poet. In this instance, I believe he is creating this imagery to portray sort of a dark environment to go along with the poem. I think this is suitable because in a way he states that we aren't even living. We are constantly dreaming and nothing is real. I thought this correllated well with a battered shore. Another poet device Poe uses is personification. In this poem her personfies a handfull of sand. I thought this was very intrigueing because he talked about how humanlike the sand was and explained it in vivid detail. The point of this unique personification was to create an analogy. He used the sand to symbolize all that is true and real slowly slipping away no matter what. Nothing can last forever no matter how hard we try or what we do.
5. I believe the tone used in this poem is somewhat dark and depressing. I interpreted it this way due to all the analogies to things gradually slipping away of rough terrain. There is little to no happy portions of this poem; it typically focuses on the false lives we are all living. I found this tone very suitable for the message at hand because becuase its severity made the reader realize Poe was telling this the way he viewed the concept.