“A Dream within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe was a famous poet of eighteenth century. He was an American poet and was born in 1809. His parents died when he was very young. He was raised by John Allan, a wealthy businessman from Richmond and from 1815 to 1820 she lived with him and his wife in the UK, where he began his education. After returning to the United States, Edgar Allan Poe went on to study at private schools and attended the University of Virginia but in 1827 his gambling and drinking led to her expulsion. He left shortly thereafter as an employee who had assigned his adoptive father, and traveled to Boston, where he published anonymously his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems. Then enlisted in the army where he remained for two years. In 1829 he published his second book of poems and obtained and influenced by his adoptive father a position at the Military Academy at West Point from which a few months he was expelled for dereliction of duty. In 1832, after the publication of his third book, Poems, he traveled to Baltimore, where he married his cousin Virginia Clem who was very young of only fourteen years old. By this time he became a newspaper editor in Baltimore Southern Messenger and later in several magazines in Philadelphia and New York, a city that had settled with his wife in 1837. His work as an incisive literary critic and often outrageous earned him some notoriety and his original findings about the story. The nature of his poetry could not fail to gain influence over time. The long illness of his wife, their marriage became a bitter experience when she died in 1847; he increased his tendency to alcoholism and drug abuse, according to the testimony of his contemporaries. Both were, in all probability, the cause of his death. This paper will explain the Poe's experiences that will help the readers to understand and interpret the Poe's work. In this paper the events that occurred in Poe's life before or at the time when he wrote this poem which will help the readers to understand it in a better way.

This poem “A Dream within a Dream” was written by writer in last days of his life. He was passed away in October, 1849. This poem represents the last expressions of inspiration that come before his concluding desperate twist towards a cryptic death. The poem reveals angriness, missing something, being disappointed, frustrated, and some incomplete desires. There was a major impact of Poe's personal life on the theme of this poetry. One of the most important incidents in Poe's life was the death of his mother when Poe was almost three years old and there can be seen the description of his mother's memory in his different poetries. The death of his beloved wife Virginia in 1846 destroyed him mentally and he started heavy use of alcohol which caused him severe health related ...