"A Dream Within A Dream " is one of Poe 's most beautiful and
haunting creations. When compared with his dark and despairing
stories, the poem at first seems less typical of Poe as it
speaks of hopes and dreams rather than bereavement, insanity and
pain. Although the darkest of Poe's poetry examines love lost
and painful deaths, "A Dream Within A Dream " deals with one
man's loss of hope. The poem is a realisation of the futility
and effervescence of mortal existence , and thus the fantasy of
dreams Though the discourse of the poem seems to reflect the
despair of a man entering his final days, Poe actually wrote
this poem as a young man of eighteen, reflecting upon his future
for which he saw little hope: 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? states that hope has left him, and left him helpless.
He reminds the reader that no matter how hope leaves, it is gone
nonetheless. Delving into the metaphysical, Poe gives the
statement at the end of