This is a broadside made by Jack of a piece by Edgar Allen Poe called A Dream Within A Dream. This poem is about the difference between a dream and reality and not being able to tell which state you’re in. It’s also about not being able to grasp a single moment, like grains of sand slipping through fingers. It questions life being one big illusion, wondering if you’re living in a dream or real life. The mood of this poem is very mysterious, I believe that because the question that is repeated makes the readers sit and wonder, “Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” Also because of the style that the poem was written the readers might have to slow down to fully understand what they are reading.

The hierarchy of this broadside has about five different levels. First I see the font in the middle “is but a dream within a dream” then next I see the font at the bottom, which says “but a dream within a dream?” Both of these sentences are the same except for one word, which leads me to believe this must be the title of this text. Then my eyes are brought to the top where the author and title name are, then finally I start to read the main body text. From a distance my eyes are definitely drawn to the large type in the center of the page, “is but a dream within a dream,” but that is the only readable sentence from far away.

The type that was chosen to accompany the large type has a similar look and feel to it. Both typefaces have forms of serifs as well as similar x-heights. The type used for the main body text I can tell was picked probably to go with the time in which the poem was written. The tracking of this type is very close together which makes some of the words hard to read making it difficult to keep my attention when reading through it. There is a good length of each sentence in the main text. This helps reading the poem down the page and makes it quick to the point. The text being center aligned is also kind of distracting to the eye when reading but I think goes well with the overall layout of the broadside.

I find the different sections of the broadside interesting. The poem seems to be split in half by just making one sentence extremely larger than all the rest. It almost makes it seem like the poem is supposed to be read in two separate parts/paragraphs. When thinking about what the poem is talking about it makes me think that the first paragraph is describing what could be the dream and the bottom paragraph could be describing reality. I think that by creating these different sections, the broadside was given some sort of shape and also gave it a more balanced look.