Proper explication of "A Dream Within a Dream"

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I am having great difficulty finding an explication of Poe's work "A Dream Within a Dream". The few that I have located just don't strike me as very believeable nor realistic. If anyone has any ideas they would like to share with me, or any sites where I can access some thoughts on that poem, please feel free to e-mail me. Thank-You!!

Steve

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000

Answers

Dear Steve,

I am currently reading English at University, and am in my third/final year:

You seek an explication of Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream". I am not sure whether there will be a great amount of criticism on this specific poem seeing as it is a rather minor section of Poe's literary ouevre, relatively speaking.

I suppose that if you can locate an anthology dealing in Poe's poetry (The one published by "Everyman's Poetry" springs to mind, although Nortons American Literature Anthology, volume 1 or 2 [cannot recall which], I believe has more annotations) then you may find out something more about the poem, though I doubt whether you shall learn much.

If you are really interested, though, I have actually written on this particular poem in correlation with a larger thematic approach concerning Romantic Poetry, even though Poe is not solely a Romantic poet, strictly speaking, though he manifests themes appertaining to this literary movement, and I would be more than happy to submit the appropriate extract to you.

Please let me know if you would like to pursue this line of action, and I hope that the references to the secondary sources prove valuable to you.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2000


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