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“The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes (1926)
This poem demonstrates Hughes’s belief in the preciousness of dreams, and he presents himself as the one who keeps and protects them. He promises to wrap the dreams:
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world (Lines 6-8).
The poem also suggests the perils that a dream may encounter if it is carried into the harsher realities of the world.
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes (1951)
This poem later appeared in the Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1959) under the title “Dream Deferred.” It is another take by Hughes on the theme of dreams. It is more pessimistic than other poems on the same topic, and he is likely referring to the decline of Harlem since its heyday in the 1920s. He wonders what happens to a dream—a dream that is about doing or accomplishing something—when it is deferred or delayed, and he offers various possibilities, none of them attractive.
“Share-Croppers” by Langston Hughes (1935)
In this poem, Hughes bemoans the lot of African American sharecroppers. After their work is done, these seasonal farm workers have nothing to show for their labor. The employers take all the money, and the workers are left to go hungry.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes