Langston Hughes

In the context of this poem, Hughes, clearly, see dreams as synonymous to goals or aspirations in life. Having dreams, aspirations, or goals is a healthy part of life. It is the simple formula of how to keep going and not give up. Everyone has a dream. Dreams can even be something as small as acing a math test or something as big as achieving a certain career in the long run. They help one express their knowledge into organizing their time and resources to help them achieve the most in life. Going off the old saying, dreams, like money, helps the world go round. In Langston Hughes’ poem, “Dreams”, he writes of the importance of having dreams which show the contrast between a life with dreams and a life without dreams, using metaphors, and the …show more content…
He uses plenty of metaphors to prove his point. Also, his lack of punctuation, except for the last line of each stanza, stresses his somewhat dark metaphors after the inspiring line, “Hold fast to dreams,”. After the repeating first line of, “Hold fast to dreams,” in both stanzas, he puts a metaphor right afterward. These metaphors show exactly how life would be miserable without dreams. In the first stanza, Hughes describes a life without dreams as a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. This means that a life without dreams is hard because birds with broken wings cannot fly at all and would have to stay on the ground until the wing is either healed or until it was put out of its misery by a predator. In the second stanza, Hughes describes a life without dreams as a barren field frozen with snow. A Barren field topped with snow is a glum image of winter because there is no life in sight; only frozen, unfertile soil and a bitter breeze. A life without dreams isn’t a life worth living because dreams help motivate you to complete any have ambitions that you will have in life. It is clear that a life with dreams is the way to go, so always hold on to your dreams no one matter if they’re small or …show more content…
Hughes leads the reader into this tone using upsetting images from his metaphors of what life would be like without dreams. From the very first line, it makes one think that the poem would have a light, happy tone because it wants you to hold on to your most precious dreams, but then Hughes drags down any good mood you have from the first line to sadness from abrupt images of potential death, unpleasant scenery, and temperatures. The tone of this poem reveals how the beginning of the Civil Rights, when he wrote this, affected his writing of it. This poem works as an uplifting cheer to persevere through hardship after you digest the abrupt mood change. It was especially targeted for African Americans during the Civil Rights who so desperately wanted their freedom and were willing to fight for it. Although the tone of the poem isn’t full of happiness, it is still a poem with an important message that can help you get through hardships with the inspiring line, “Hold fast to dreams,” with encouraging reasons