Figurative language

The poem I liked is A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
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?
All that we see or seem
Is but 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
But a dream within a dream?

In this poem, the figurative language used are...

-Yet if hope has flown away

This line makes use of personification to show that there was no hope.

-I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore

This line also makes use of personification to emphasize on the shore.

-How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep

Personification was used again in this line to show how the sand went through the poet's fingers.

-One from the pitiless wave?

This line makes use of personification to emphasize on the wave.


I liked this poem as it makes use of good personification, one of my favourite figurative language, to emphasize on the shore and wave. It lets the reader picture what the poet is trying to tell in their minds easily. I espeicially liked the last versa:

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
But a dream within a dream?

As it shows us the helplessness of mankind and how they always rely on God to give tham an answer.