Lost in a Dream Anonymous

"You may say that I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." John Lennon's "Imagine" has reached far beyond the bounds of his time to embrace the sentiments of an ageless audience. Lennon invites his listeners to envision a society in which people do not anticipate the beauty and splendor of a heaven, but rather attempt to create this environment on earth. Manmade barriers no longer exist and life is a general "brotherhood of man" in which people have a mutual respect for one another's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Humanity has long suffered the strife of reality and dreamed of a utopian society, similar to Lennon's vision. This civilization would ideally be void of pain, want, and despair-all aspects of the shared human condition. Inevitably the daydream ends, the flower withers, and love is forever lost. Artists and poets are not exempt from this race of optimists who find their dreams obliterated by the cruelty of reality. Through several of his poems, Edgar Allen Poe struggles to find a compromise between the caustic world of reality and the fantastical images of dream life. His catalogue of poems...