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Langston Hughes' Dreams
By Shirley McDonald
March 22, 2004

Considered poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was the first African American author to support himself through his writing. Although Hughes’ poetry was written primarily to picture the plight of the African American when Jim Crow laws were still practiced in many states, this poem simply but vividly describes the emptiness and hopelessness of our lives without dreams.

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

ninetyandnine.com

© 2004, Shirley McDonald

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Shirley McDonald dreams of the day she will finally know what she wants to be when she grows up.

Bibliography

I found this copy in 20^th Century American Poetry: An Anthology  (Signal Hill Publications, 1991).

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*Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 10^th Edition 1993 Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts