The poem "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe describes standing on a shore holding grains of sand that slip through one's fingers and are lost to the sea, despite attempts to hold on tighter. The analysis suggests this represents trying to achieve dreams and desires in life that are delicate and difficult to attain despite our best efforts, as with the waves taking the sand. It notes we often have "dreams within dreams" about whether we can achieve our goals.

1. An extract from the poem:
“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 By Edgar Allan Poe
But a dream within a dream?

2. I chose this poem because I
think it is related with real life. I
think that everyone has
dreams in life and that
sometimes they are not easy
and we have to make a huge
effort to achieve them.

3. I believe that there is a
comparison in this poem. The
tormented shore in a way is
like the REAL LIFE and how
sometimes becomes difficult
for us. And the sand means for
me “our dreams and desires in
life”.

4. Dreams are very delicate so we
have to cautious and make sure
that we can achieve what we
really want and of course we
don’t have to be afraid to do our
best, we have to stay strong
against the “waves” because
miracles happen every day!

5. As regards the meaning of the
title, I think we tend to have
dreams about our dreams that
we really desire that seem
difficult to achieve.
I feel that we tend to visualize
whether we will reach our goals
and so we begin to ask questions
ourselves about them and which
the best way to fulfill them is.

6. Love Sonnet N° 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's
eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my
bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends
possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's
scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost
despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's
gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such By William Shakespeare
wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with
kings.

7. Obviously this sonnet talks
about love.
Here, Shakespeare feels that
his deep feeling keeps him
calm and in a way avoids him
to think that he is more inferior
to the rest.

8. Besides, these feelings allow
him to “escape to another
world” and forget about his
sad thoughts or problems that
he has in his life. I believe that
he trusts in his feelings and he
feels safe thinking about them.

9. People sometimes behave in this way.
We tend to compare our weakest and
strongest aspect of our personality but
we always take into consideration the
best aspects we have so in a way we
can feel proud of ourselves.
I think personalities are so different and
difficult as well. Nobody is more inferior
to the rest. It is about how we
behave, face, interpret different
situations in life.

10. An extract from “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
He stood not silent like a
beast or post,
But gave his answer with
the ringing word
Of a man’s voice and
the assembly heard:
“My liege and lady, in
general” said he,
“A woman wants the
self-same sovereignty
Over her husband as
over her lover, Canterbury Tales
And master him; he must
not be above her”

11. Women in the medieval times
tended to be anonymous, they
could not be part of society,
government and education and
they became husband’s property.
But these lines demonstrate Wife
of Bath’s thoughts.
She is considered as a very
dominant, manipulative and
strong woman who points out a
nontraditional role of women in
the medieval times.

12. The main theme of this poem is the
sovereignty of women in marriage.
Women have to be self-confident,
independent and occupy an
important place in relationships with
their husbands, that is to say their
husbands could not dominate them.
It’s clear that in this poem the Wife of
Bath’s uses these descriptions to show
that women have the ability to
maintain control over their marriage.