A Dream Within a Dream

A Dream Within a Dream
By Edgar Allen Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? 

Interpretation of “A Dream Within a Dream”

By Kaitlyn

This poem is by Edgar Allen Poe and has 24 lines and 2 stanzas. At the end of each stanza he ends it by saying a dream within a dream. This poem is in first person. The narrator uses lots of examples to represent what she is talking about in this story. I think this story is about the narrator talking about her own life or somebody else’s.

“Take this kiss upon the brow” (Poe, ln. 1). I think this line means a mother and father kissing there child goodbye or goodnight. “And, in parting from you know” (Poe, 1n.2) means there leaving and saying there final goodbye. “You are not wrong; who deem/that my days have been a dream” (Poe, ln.4-5) the child is saying please don’t go haven’t you loved this place and why would you want to leave? The father is responding you are not wrong I will miss place and it has been so great almost a dream but when he says “Yet if hope has flown away” (Poe, ln.6) the father is saying I hoped I wouldn’t have to leave but sadly I have to know because faith deserted me. The beginning is very sad and can mean many different things but I think it’s a father kissing there child goodbye as he has to leave for war even though he doesn’t want to go.

“Yet if hope has flown away/in a night, or in a day/in a vision”, or in none’(Poe,1n.6-7-8) it sounds like the father is saying yes we both know hope has left us but we are still together no matter what, day and night can’t keep us apart. We can find our ways to remember each other without seeing them. I’m not really leaving you because I’m still in your heart. “All that we see or seem/is but a dream within a dream. (Poe, 1n.1-/11).                                                                

        The child sadly had to watch his dad get on the train and leave but it’s almost like a dream. I can’t relate my emotions to this story because of how powerful it is. “While I weep- while I weep!”(Poe, 1n.18) the child is crying and in the poem she next said; “O god! Can I not grasp/with a tighter clasp? O god! Can I not save/One from the pitiless wave?” The child wants to stop the train and be with him but he can’t. He or she thinks going to war is the worst thing possible and is going to take away his dad forever but it really won’t and his dad couldn’t explain that to him.                                                                                                              

I think there is a lot of detail in this story but not enough to know what’s really going on But, I get the main idea. When I put this poem in my own interpretation (Poe,ln19) came up with something totally different than what I expected.  When I did this poem came out so sad and emotional and I think that is what the author intended to put out there for everyone who read this.

A Fool's Song

A Fool's Song
By William Carlos Williams

I tried to put a bird in a cage.
        O fool that I am!
    For the bird was Truth.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!

And when I had the bird in the cage,
        O fool that I am!
    Why, it broke my pretty cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!

And when the bird was flown from the cage,
        O fool that I am!
    Why, I had nor bird nor cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!
    Heigh-ho! Truth in a cage.

An Interpretation of “A Fool’s Song”
By Caroline

My poem “A Fool’s Song” consists of sixteen lines and three stanzas.  This poem has no rhyme scheme.  The point of view of this poem is first person.  This poem’s setting is a room with a person and a bird cage.

 The speaker of the poem is a person who is trying to hide the truth.  The person that has the truth/secret is having a hard time hiding the truth.  The truth/secret keeps on escaping.  But, the person finally hides the truth/secret after many tries. 

In each stanza the fourth line has no punctuation in.  The fourth line does not have punctuation because Williams says “I tried to put” (Williams, ln. 4).   Each fourth line says that.  After each fourth line in all of the stanzas the next lines say, “Truth in a cage” (Williams, ln. 5)!  This makes a full sentence of “I tried to put truth in a cage.”  When Williams says, “I tried to put a bird in a cage” (Williams, ln. 1) Williams means that the bird is the truth/ a secret and the cage that he is trying to put it in means that he is trying to hide the truth/ a secret. 

            My interpretation of this poem is that a person has a deep, dark secret or a truth that they are trying to hide.  The truth/ secret keeps escaping and spreads to people.  The person that has the secret doesn’t want anyone to know so they try to hide it.  After many tries of trying to put the truth back in the cage/ trying to hide it the person finally achieves their goal and hides the truth.

            Another interpretation to this story is that the speaker cheated on a test.  The speaker keeps on peeking on the test next to them.  Each time they go to look at their neighbor’s test the teacher catches them cheating.  Finally the speaker comes up with a good technique to cheat and the teacher doesn’t catch them cheating.  When they get their test back they got a 100%. That means that their goal of cheating is finally achieved.  They have successfully cheated.  When the bird is finally hidden the persons cheating habit is finally hidden.  They can use that technique whenever they want and not get told on.

            The bird is a metaphor for a deep dark secret or a truth.  The cage is a metaphor to the person trying to hide the truth/ secret.  Each time the bird escapes it is a metaphor to the truth escaping and spreading to people.  When the bird is finally kept in the cage the metaphor is that the truth is finally hidden. 

            When Williams writes, “Why, it broke my pretty cage” (Williams, ln. 8) the truth had escaped and the cover was broken.  When the poet, Williams, says, “Heigh-ho!  Truth in a cage” (Williams, ln. 16) it means that he is very happy that the truth is hidden and that he doesn’t plan on the truth or secret getting out again.  “And when the bird was flown from the cage” (Williams, ln. 11) means that the truth or secret had escaped and that the truth was being spread around everywhere.

            The poem ends by finally saying that the truth is hidden.  When Williams says that it is hidden/kept control of it means that the truth will not escape again.  It is finally hidden forever.  It is a nice way to end the poem because the poem is about the truth/secret escaping a lot.  But, when the speaker finally hides the truth it is a relief.   It is a relief because the speaker finally keeps the truth from escaping.  The speaker doesn’t have to worry about the truth/speaker escaping.

Willow Poem

Willow Poem 

By William Carlos Williams

It is a willow when summer is over,
a willow by the river
from which no leaf has fallen nor
bitten by the sun
turned orange or crimson.
The leaves cling and grow paler,
swing and grow paler
over the swirling waters of the river
as if loth to let go,
they are so cool, so drunk with
the swirl of the wind and of the river --
oblivious to winter,
the last to let go and fall
into the water and on the ground.

Willow Poem Analysis 

By Ashley

            “Willow Poem” is set on a river, where the branches of the willow lean over the water, as Williams writes, “a willow by the river” (Williams, Ln.2). The willow is the main focus of the poem, because one, the title is “Willow Poem”, and two, the poem only talks about how the tree never changes and is always, and will always be “a willow by the river” (Williams, Ln.2).

            This poem has no rhyme scheme. It is all one stanza comprised of 14 individual lines. These 14 lines are only two full sentences, each with acceptable punctuation. Williams writes nothing about a speaker however. The reason there is no speaker is that it focuses only on the tree, not in relationship to anything else. The poem is about how little the willow changes but how much everything else does. It does that by talking about how the willow’s leaves haven’t fallen or been “bitten by the sun” (Williams, Ln.4), or how the leaves “cling and grow paler” (Williams, Ln.6), and every other tree’s do. We can get from our past knowledge that trees are a certain way, and Williams describes this particular one differently.

            The first line, “it is a willow when summer is over” (Williams Ln. 1), says that it is, and will always be the same. It hints that the poem wouldn’t really have a story but would create an image. Lines 3, 4, and 5 describe the willow like an evergreen, which it is not, by writing about how “no leaf has fallen, nor bitten by the sun, turned orange or crimson” (Williams, Ln.3-5). Line 8 describes the scene as “swirling waters of the river” (Williams, Ln.8), which also says the willow is by a river. Line 9 was strange to me; “As if loath to let go” (Williams Ln.9). Loath means reluctant, so this line means the leaves (of a willow tree) are reluctant to fall off the willow tree. But willow trees aren’t evergreen so their leaves fall off anyway, and loath is a human trait, so a leaf can’t loath. In this line, Williams used personification to describe the leaves of the willow.

            The lines that confused me most were lines 10 and 11: “They are so cool, so drunk with the swirl of the wind and the river” (Williams, Ln.10-11). Cool probably meant moderately cold in Williams’ time as opposed to awesome. I think it could mean that the tree is healthy because of the temperature and location. The river provides water, the tree gets plenty of sun, and the temperature is nice. Williams probably used a more poetic way to say that. Also, “drunk” is a human trait, so again, Williams uses personification.

            Line 12 says the leaves are “oblivious to winter” (Williams, Ln.12), which hints that willows are evergreen. I looked it up and they are not. Possibly this could be another hint toward the location. This particular willow could be in a very warm place that barely sees winter.

            “The last to let go and fall” (Williams, Ln.13) describes the leaves, again, hinting similarities to an evergreen. I know, though, that willows are not evergreen, and this line is very unclear. It could describe one particular leaf that has fallen after all the rest, but it uses plural pronouns to describe the leaves. It could just be that willows loose their leaves after all the other trees, but I am not completely sure. The next line, “into the water and on to the ground” (Williams, Ln. 14), talks about the location. It is, I think, a good way to end the poem because it is about the leaves on a willow tree, and their story ends as they fall and hit the ground. It makes perfect sense for Williams to use the leaves falling to end the poem.

            Williams used imagery to set a beautiful scene where a willow is among trees by a river. He then compares the willow to other trees in general, but quite subtly. He doesn’t say “regular trees lose their leaves, but this willow hasn’t yet.” Instead he talks about the willow, and from our past knowledge, we can distinguish similarities and differences from trees in general. Since there was no story to the poem, it was slightly confusing why he wrote what he did and what he meant by it. I think he meant that the willow is, and will always be, the same, but also is different from everything else.

            Williams wrote poems to be understood by everyone, and the simplicity of the poem probably reflects the simplicity of life back then. After all, how simple is a willow tree that barely ever changes: “a willow when summer is over, a willow by the river…” (Williams, Ln. 1)