Dreams
loss
hope
lyric poem
joyful
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.
Dreams - meaning Summary
Hope as Survival
This short poem urges readers to cling to dreams because they sustain life and purpose. Using two parallel stanzas, it contrasts a living world with one robbed of aspiration: without dreams life is like a wounded bird or a barren, frozen field. The message is a compact moral: dreams are necessary for vitality and hope, especially resonant given Hughes’s focus on African American resilience and future possibility.
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