A Dream by Edgar

When taking a first look at the title for the poem “A Dream”, the first thought that came to mind was a dream, as in dreams in the night and also the type of dreams as in your goals or ambitions. The words mysterious, meaningful, and vivid also came to mind when associating it with the dreams that you would get sleeping in the night.

As reading the poem and looking into what the speaker was talking about, the poem is about finding life unsatisfying, and to prefer dreaming of a life in the past that was better than the present. Throughout the poem the speaker talks about his feelings towards his dreams taking him away from cold hearted reality and the despair that is felt when waking up.

Reading the poem a couple times a deeper understanding comes to mind as to what the poem is about. The poet talks about being disappointed with life and how he’s favoring sleep and dreams, it also describes that despite everyone around him telling him to 'wake up' and face reality, the dream he has at night is what brings him at least some level of joy. He uses a simile when writing the line “Hath cheered me as a lovely beam”. By using the word “as” the speaker showed us the concept of people loving him as a cheerful type of person, when in reality he’s not.

To understand a deeper meaning further the poet also uses onomatopoeia as a poetic device. The line, “Ah! What is not a dream by day” the “Ah!” showed his reaction as to what he was saying. With the use of this onomatopoeia he increased the realization of the emotion that he felt when saying this, which also brought out the feel of sarcasm to it. The speaker also uses repetition at “That holy dream-that holy dream” which just shows the importance and significance to the phrase.

The poetic devices used helped to increase the quality of the poem and make it be more interesting and lively. They deepened the subject and the theme of the poem, and helped compare