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English 2305 D01
Living with a Poem: A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
Day 1: After reading through this poem twice my initial reaction is that Edgar Allan Poe is
describing dreaming to us. We all dream however more often than not we do not know when we
are dreaming. Rather our dreams feel real to us. I think what Edgar Allan Poe is trying to say is
that while dreaming we are usually in a state of excitement. Especially when we are having a
good dream, we don't want it to end.
When Poe said "But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted" I
believe he is describing waking up from his dream. Like I mentioned earlier whenever we, as the
dreamer, are having a good dream we are often filled with disappointment when we awake from
the dream and realize it was simply a dream. I believe Poe is referring to that similar feeling in
the above lines. I chose this poem because it is very relatable to all of us. Dreams are our chance
to escape from the world and experience different types of emotions that we normally do not get
to experience in the real world. These emotions can include joy or sadness. We may find some
things pleasurable in our dreams that we normally would not. Because of the way Poe described
the dream and waking up from it seemed very relatable which is the main reason I chose to live
with this poem for a week.
Day 2: Some of the words I have circled in this poem include: dark night, cast, ray, chiding,
beam, day-star. I have circled these because at first I did not understand what the author was
trying to say when he included them in the poem. As I read through the poem over and over
again I started to have a better understanding of these words. I did know the definition of most of
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these words however I was unsure on why he decided to use them. Like I mentioned when I read
through them I started to understand each word. I think this is because I started to put more
emphasis on these words as I was reading through them. Then I tried replacing these words and
realized that this poem is completely different without them. Each one of these words has a
special metaphoric meaning behind them in the poem. I completely agree with Poe's choice of
these words now because it goes along with describing a "dream" and waking up from dreams,
which is essentially what this whole poem is about.
Day 3: In the first stanza Poe talks about a dream that he is having through the night. In this
dream he describes that he is experiencing joy and losing it. Then he talks about waking up from
the dream and feeling broken-hearted from it. In the next stanza he is talking about dreams in
general. How dreams are a reflection of the things around us. How dreams can be a reflection of
