Analysis comparison of two poems

“A dream within a dream” is a dream poem written by Edgar Allan Poe while the poem of a bed of cloud was written by Ashley L. Mayt. Both poems are dream poems although the writers have written the poems in different ways and styles in order to pass a message that this the current world, is not really our reality (Barnes 7, Felleman 829). The poems bring a misconception that we are not viewing things the right way they are, because they are not real. According to Ashley in a bed of cloud, he is disheartened and desired for examining the real reality, avoiding the illusions and misunderstandings from this world. He has stated that he desired and wished to wake up from this life which is actually his dream or non-reality. The writer knows that all the things that are present in this world are also examples of misconception. He has strained so hard to wake up from this “bed of cloud”, but he could not because he is completely stuck in this practical reality, that’s why makes him to feel miserable and unhappy (Felleman 829). In my opinion, the idea here has nothing to do with him dreaming but he is trying to convey the message about the misconception that life is.

In contrast Edgar has explained merriment of human emotions as a skill and in life itself. This poem brings a mixture of emotions of sorrow and pity which can even make someone to shed tears while reading it. The writer tries to convey his message using a dream which is inside another dream and he has described that his last dream is his life, the initial dream is the period spend with his love who is not alive now. The first line in the first stanza states about kissing the brow, in my opinion it is an act to a dead lover. He somehow believes that they will always be present in that certain time and place in history by asking that whether therefore the less gone.

In the second stanza the writer brings the fact that his love is forever out reach this is because he deny his wife’s death (Barnes 7). Therefore, that’s why he engages himself in a dream within a dream but unfortunately he cannot even have her back in his dreams. This makes him question whether we seem to dream in a dream within a dream and thus asks his very presence. This does reveal his unhappiness and sadness and though he counters that with the fact that live itself is nothing but a dream and that his period which he spend with her is the same excluding a portion of it.

“A bed of clouds” contains only one stanza and one setting. The writer has not described well where the entire poem happened but has shown in the fifth line how some people say that he stuck in that place thus verifying only one setting. The stanza brings some misconceptions that don’t exactly root us in a firm reality. Moreover the writer of “a bed of clouds” has not applied any regular rhyming scheme in the entire poem. This means that the rhyming is irregular since the arrangement of last syllables which sound same is irregular, for example last syllable in the eighth line “up” do not sound the same with the last syllable in the ninth line “nightmare” and therefore this bring irregular arrangement of the syllables. In my opinion the emphasis of the writer is about what is in his mind but not where exactly he is (Felleman 828).

In contrary, “a dream within a dream” contains two stanzas and two different settings. Similarly, the speaker has not described well on where the first stanza took place and there is no detail about the woman he is talking about. In the second stanza, the details are little more physical because there is an ocean (line 13), golden sand and heap of noise which is abundantly symbolic. The line about roar of the sea weakly recalls the writer’s noisy and busy daydreams from this second stanza and forestalls the outrageous and pitiless wave (line 22) that keeps swallowing the grains of sand. A misconception to confuse us is brought by this wave and in turn retells us of the power of our minds. In this poem the rhyming scheme is regular and the speaker has applied the last syllables in a regular arrangement (Barnes 7).

However both poems meant that everything, in realism, is actually a misconception. We live in the illusion of things and everything is a misconception within a misconception; that is a dream within a dream and a bed of cloud. The poems does seem a little vague but they are really explaining how the speakers are struggling to question themselves whether is an illusion or whether life is real or not. Therefore, that’s why we always see and experience the two poems as a dream because we do not have idea what is real. But the good summary is that even still the titles make us reason the poems are going to be a description of illusions and dreams, they give an explanation of momentary nature of our existence time (Barnes 7, Felleman 828).

References

Barnes, Nigel. A Dream Within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. London: Peter Owen, 2009. Print.

Felleman, Hazel. The Best Loved Poems of the American People. Doubleday, 1936. Print