Quoth The Raven - Poe Poetry Blog

In pop music, an “outro” is the concluding segment of a song—the word is made up from the opposite term, an intro , which is the introductory portion: it can be a guitar riff, a distinctive drumbeat, or a combination of similar elements. The introduction to Beethoven’s Fifth (or Symphony No. 5 in C minor) has been called “the most famous four notes in music history” and you can probably hear the ‘ ta-ta-ta-tum ’ in your head as you read this.  (It said “ saxo-mo-phone ,” to Homer Simpson.)   In the world of pop music, the Beatles were prone to writing memorable outros in songs like “Hey Jude” (‘Na, na, na-na, na-na,’ etc.), “Drive My Car” (‘Beep-beep ‘n beep-beep, yeah’) and “Ticket to Ride” (‘My baby don’t care’). All of these outros switched gears from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern that preceded them into a repetitive loop that was intended to fade out as the song ended. That same idea—a repetitive pattern that takes us out of the pattern set up in the main body—was employ

Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream” (1827) echoes the same sentiments as “A Dream Within A Dream” (1849) , written almost a quarter century later. I have written previously that “A Dream Within A Dream” denotes a happy dream (the past) wrapped up in a miserable dream (the present). That poem and the other poem considered here juxtapose a vivid happiness recalled through dreams, against a present-day reality so jaded and faded that it resembles a dream state.   Both poles recur often in Poe’s poetry. The dream past is recalled in poems such as “Dreams” (1827) (“ I have been happy, tho’ in a dream/I have been happy—and I love the theme ”) and “Annabel Lee” (1849) (“ For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams/Of the beautiful Annabel Lee ”). The sleepwalking present is evidenced in “To One in Paradise” (1833) (“ And all my days are trances ”) and “Ulalume” (1847) (“ I replied—'This is nothing but dreaming’ .”) Dreams are a hot topic in Poe’s oeuvre .   In “A Dream,” the poem we