A
Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
In
visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
With this poem, I have to agree with your interpretation of the role of dreams and life in the poem. I would like to consider the rhetorical questions more, though. I think leaving the rhetorical questions as just methods of creating ambiguity underestimates the meaning they have in the poem. The rhetorical questions are very leading throughout the poem, suggesting that the conclusion to each question is a given. As such, I believe that they are, instead, meant to convey the grandiosity which dreams hold in the speaker's eyes.
ReplyDeletePoe seems to have the speaker use these questions to establish the reality of these dreams, as they represent "Truth's day-star" to the speaker. That is to say that he sees more truth in the absurdity of dreams than he does in the light of the waking world. The rhetorical questions seem to convey this euphoric wonder as they blur the line between the waking world and the sleeping world. With this in mind, it seems that the rhetorical questions are more central to the poem's message than you considered in your analysis essay.