Dream Variations | New Levels of Meaning in Hughes's Poem
In
this essay, Kukathas maintains that because of the
nature of the poem as a dream, an understanding
by the reader of Hughes’s background, political beliefs,
and influences aids in interpretation and discovering
new levels of meaning in Hughes’s poem.
Upon first reading, Hughes’s poem appears to be merely the recounting of a simple dream by an unnamed speaker. The action and images of the poem are so spare, at first sight seeming to reveal only that the speaker is having a dream about dancing in a “place in the sun” and then resting underneath a tree until night descends. But of course, the poem is about much more. Indeed it is striking that in seventeen uncomplicated lines Hughes is able to suggest such a wealth of ideas, touching as he does on subjects like the social reality of the 1920s, Black Americans’ spiritual...
[The entire page is 1720 words long]
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