While searching for a poem to write about for this
week’s blog I could not help but think about our class discussion we had on
Friday on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave,
which philosophically explored the question of whether it is better to be
enlightened with the knowledge of truth and light, or live out in blissful
ignorance, never fully aware of the truth that lies beyond our own minds. This led
me to try to find a poem that involves discussing the satisfaction of life in
both our waking reality and the illusions of our dreams in Edgar Allan Poe’s “A
Dream”. Poe drenches his short poem with a plethora of meaning, found first in
the opening lines that state, “In vision of the dark night/I have dreamed of
joy departed-/But a waking dream of life and light/Hath left me broken-hearted”.
Poe details to the reader how his heart can find no place of happiness or joy
in subconscious thought, the final possibility for him to find it. All other
places that surround him throughout his waking moments only serve to remind him
of the wretchedness of how his life has played out. If looking at this with
respect to Plato, Poe is twisting the philosopher’s perspective to show that
ultimately there is no escape to discover some enlightening truth of lives that
can hope to change us into better people, but in fact both the disillusioned
world of our lives and our dreams are both equally filled with pain and misery
that no power can serve to alleviate. Poe’s commiserations of the bitter truth
of the world continues as he says, “What is not a dream by day…turned back upon
the past?” Again, Poe explores his own internal disillusionment and embracing
of the bitter truth of the world by reflecting on his dreams. Dreams, by their
own nature, are reflections of our own lives that play out into our
subconscious thought. Thus, the reason that Poe’s dreams are full of misery and
woe is because his dreams are simply a reflection of the world lodged in
reality. There is no escape from the pain of our world, as the dream world we
try so hard to create can only reflect the sad truth of our own lives. Anyone
who deems otherwise that there is some glimmer of goodness left to find in the
world is only ignoring the harsh truth of what each and every one of our lives
has become. Poe makes his final point very clear, lamenting, “That holy
dream-that holy dream…What could there be more purely bright/In Truth’s
day-star”. The final lines of the poem reflect just how obvious the point that
Poe is trying to make. The truth of how the world really is, full of only pain
and sorrow, is something that so many people adamantly do not wish to accept
and base their lives around avoiding it. Ironically, Poe portrays the dark and
foreboding nature of the world to be like a light that shines brightly; one
that encompasses all that it sees and spares no one. Such is the nature of the
world, and not even the illusions and fantasies of dreams can spare a person
from the truth.
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
Edgar Allan PoeI have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
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