The five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance; many, if not all, people go through these stages throughout their lives Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within A Dream" follows a desperate speaker grieving the loss of a loved one Most people cannot comprehend the utter desolation of seeing a loved one die, the helplessness of a life that passes, the resulting self-loathing. with the failure to protect what you love most. The poem begins with an almost calm acceptance and a gentle farewell between two lovers. The speaker bestows a "kiss on the forehead." verse 1... is it redundant? ) to his deceased lover, this classic display of affection draws the reader into a picturesque reverence From there the speaker wonders about existence and the afterlife, as a traditional question still today is discussed, the speaker tries to create a sense of. hope to see his love again. His hope having "flown away" (line 6) gives hope a bird-like quality, and although hope may go away there is always an optimism that it will return. The question “And yet hope has flown away. . .Has the minus therefore disappeared?” (lines 6-9) strikes the readers, it is the first use of italics and leads the reader to answer the question. The speaker's question answers the question: In the complete loss of hope, does hope really matter when you lose something that you can never get back? The later use of italics in “All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream.” (Line 10-11) Unifies “gone (line 9) and “Everything” (line 10) with the speaker's hope and love is gone, it's still the only thing he can see. The speaker's “dream within a dream” (line 11) may allude to two different meanings… middle of the paper… is slowly losing the fondest memories of his deceased love. Once again the speaker uses italics to bring together two main concepts in his stanza, "One" (line 25) and "all" (line 26), his deceased love still being the only thing on his mind after all this time. the poem overall compares life to a dream in many aspects. The fact that man cannot control what he dreams, or how as the days pass the memory of the dream fades. The speaker of the poem loses control of his world when his love leaves, then as he ages his fond memories of their time together are swept away by the tides of time. This poem feels good through the darkest experience of loss that many people go through over time, and leaves the reader with the desperate helplessness that the speaker feels through the poem. “Pain changes shape, but never ends.” (Keanu Reeves)