This poem describes a man standing on the ocean shore and crying because he cannot keep the grains of sand in his hand from falling. The poem presents the sadness of Poe's life as if the grains were a metaphor for his loved ones who had died and were taken from his life. He agrees that his life is a dream. However, he believes that “life is just a dream but everything is just a dream within a dream” (gradesaver). Finally, Spirits of the dead is the story of Poe's dark and sad grief and the loss of his wife Virginia. Somehow, the speaker reacts to his loss, but then the poem contains a dew that shifts from sadness, to anger, to acceptance. This goes with the theme of how we all have to deal with death and is just part of it