In each case, “evening,” at the end of line 5, breaks the string. All words of more than one syllable appear in lines 5 through 7. They are words that caress the ear with softn and ing sounds (evening, Beneath, gently, evening, coming, tenderly). This reinforces the experience that these lines describe, the sense of which is conveyed overtly by words such as “gently” and “tenderly.” The trisyllabic “tenderly” is climactically positioned, for effect. Then each stanza ends, as it began, with monosyllables, their clipped, staccato effect intensified by the clicking k sounds: “Dark like me,” then “Black like me.”

Evening is “cool” and “pale”: The tactile and visual senses alike are muted. Rest replaces motion; the stationary tree replaces the whirling figure. Night is static, centripetal, rooted, but it is also more complex, more humane. There is something uncomfortably confrontational about flinging one’s “arms wide/ In the face of the sun”—but night’s confrontation is gentle, tender. At the end, the poem resolves with the blackness, not of oblivion, but a kind of fulfillment.

Black Nationalism and the Back-to-Africa Movement in the 1920s

The conclusion of World War I in 1918 brought mixed outcomes for black Americans. Upon returning home, the 400,000 black soldiers who had served during the war were disheartened to discover that their contributions did not earn them the respect and dignity needed to fully partake in the American dream. Compounding their disappointment, many blacks who had migrated from the South to work in northern factories during wartime labor shortages were displaced from their jobs to accommodate returning white soldiers. As racial tensions escalated between blacks and whites, violence spread across the nation. In the South, lynchings surged alarmingly, with over seventy blacks murdered by white racists in 1919 alone, who viewed black progress as a threat to southern traditions. Northern conditions were scarcely better; in July 1919, racial tensions in Chicago peaked when a black youth drowned in Lake Michigan after being stoned by whites who believed he was encroaching on their segregated beach. The ensuing riots lasted over a week and resulted in 38 deaths. Similar violence erupted in other northern cities, culminating in 120 fatalities, the majority of whom were black.

The most significant black populist response to this racial unrest and violence was spearheaded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant who established New York’s Harlem as the international headquarters for his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Prior to his arrival in New York in 1916, Garvey had observed through his experiences in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe that blacks were consistently at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy, enduring the most severe indignities and undertaking the most grueling and menial labor. Inspired by the writings and achievements of Booker T. Washington, Garvey journeyed to New York in 1916 with the objective of raising funds to establish a black university in Jamaica. This institution, modeled after the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, aimed to provide blacks with the educational tools necessary to achieve equality with whites.

As Garvey traversed the United States, he swiftly gained recognition for his exceptional public speaking abilities and compelling message that black people should embrace their African heritage with pride. He emphasized to his grateful listeners that African civilizations had achieved remarkable advancements at a time when European societies were merely primitive tribes of hunters and warriors. Garvey asserted that God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary were black, and he warned that African Americans who worshiped a white God were destined to perpetuate their own inferiority. Through his speeches and his newspaper, Negro World, Garvey's UNIA saw rapid growth. By the time of the Chicago riots, the UNIA had amassed two million members and established thirty-eight chapters worldwide, earning Garvey the affectionate title of "the Black Moses" for his efforts to uplift his people from oppression.

In August 1920, Garvey organized the First International Convention of the Negro People of the World in Harlem. For an entire month, black delegates from across the globe convened, delivered speeches, and advocated for global black solidarity to combat racial inequalities both in the United States and internationally. These delegates drafted the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, which outlined numerous injustices faced by black people worldwide and proposed solutions to these issues. Before the convention concluded, Garvey articulated his vision that Africa would one day be liberated from white colonial rule and governed by black leaders. He envisioned a new Africa as the natural and rightful home for all black individuals worldwide, where they could control their own destinies free from white racism and domination.

Garvey's vision of transforming Africa into a black Zion became known as the Back to Africa movement. Although few African Americans actually relocated to Africa, Garvey dispatched several delegations to Liberia in 1922 and 1924 to explore the possibility of establishing settlements for the anticipated influx of black people eager to build a new Africa. While Liberia ultimately rejected these settlement proposals, Garvey and his organization persisted in advocating for the establishment of a black homeland. Although Hughes never considered returning to Africa, his poem "Dream Variations," written during the peak of the black nationalism movement, reflects the influence of the idea of Africa as the true homeland for African Americans.

By the mid-1920s, Garvey's movement was deteriorating almost as rapidly as it had risen to prominence. Garvey's own rigid personality earned him numerous adversaries, and the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, deemed Garvey's message to be perilous and inciting racial violence. In 1923, Garvey was convicted of fraud for promoting the sale of stock in his Black Star Line, a shipping company he had established four years earlier to foster a black-owned industry and support the back-to-Africa migration. After a year and a half of appeals, Garvey began serving his sentence in 1925. For the following two years, outraged black communities held rallies, some drawing over 100,000 protesters, demanding Garvey's release. In 1927, President Coolidge ordered Garvey's release, but immigration officials promptly labeled him a dangerous criminal and mandated his deportation to Jamaica. Removed from the international spotlight, Garvey's fame and influence waned, as did his Back to Africa movement.

By traditional poetic standards, the structure of “Dream Variations” is straightforward: it features two rhyming lines (die/fly, go/snow); the first, second, and fourth lines of each stanza contain four syllables; there is no consistent meter; and 26 of the 32 words are monosyllabic. However, this poem does not aim to adhere to conventional poetic forms. Instead, Hughes has adopted the structure of the blues, a musical genre from the American South with African rhythmic roots. Blues songs address themes of loss and defeat, framing hardship in a way that allows those who have suffered to mentally manage and even overcome it. The rigid structure of the blues helps the mind gain control over the sorrow expressed in the lyrics. In traditional blues, there is one long line with a mid-line pause, which is repeated and followed by a long, uninterrupted third line, then a fourth line that resolves the issue, often stoically or occasionally with a hint of optimism. In “Dreams,” Hughes employs a long first line with a mid-line pause (indicated by the line break after “dreams” in lines 1 and 5), but he does not repeat this line. The third line of each stanza serves as a climax, highlighting the poem’s vivid imagery (“broken-winged bird” and “barren field”). The final line could leave the reader with a bleak outlook, but the poem counters this by twice offering a solution to the bleakness: “Hold fast to dreams.”

1920s: Marcus Garvey, a charismatic and contentious figure leading the Universal Negro Improvement Association, rises to prominence with his advocacy for education, unity, and black pride to uplift African Americans from the cycle of poverty and despair caused by racism.

Today: Minister Louis Farrakhan, the dynamic and controversial head of the Nation of Islam, promotes a message of black pride and unity to help African Americans develop an identity distinct from white American culture.

1920s: Racial tensions lead to violent outbreaks in several U.S. cities, including Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia.

Today: Racial tensions remain high in numerous U.S. cities, especially after the 2001 racial riots in Cincinnati that followed the police shooting of a young black man.

1920s: African Americans often hold the lowest-paying jobs, such as janitors, dishwashers, garbage collectors, and domestic workers, due to a lack of education for better opportunities. Additionally, many unions actively work to exclude them from their trades and organizations.

Today: More than one-third of black families live in poverty, compared to 10 percent of white families. Although the percentage of black high school graduates attending college is nearly equal to that of white graduates, a significantly smaller proportion of black students complete high school.

Voices and Visions: Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper (1999) is a video biography that highlights the significance of Langston Hughes as both a poet and a prominent voice for African Americans, as well as a supporter of black artists.

In Langston Hughes Reads His Poetry (1995), Hughes recites his own works and recounts his experiences growing up as a black individual in the openly segregated and prejudiced society of the early to mid-twentieth century.

The Academy of American Poets hosts a dedicated Langston Hughes page at http://www.poets.org (last accessed January 2002), featuring links to additional intriguing sites.

Sources

Baldwin, James, “Sermons and Blues,” in New York Times Book Review, March 29, 1959, p. 6.

Barksdale, Richard, Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics, American Library Association, 1977, p. 4.

Brinkley, Alan, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993, pp. 628–29.

Dickinson, Donald C., A Bio-Bibliography of Langston Hughes, 1902–1967, Archon Books, 1967, p. 29.

Emanuel, James A., “Langston Hughes,” in Twayne’s United States Authors Series Online, G. K. Hall & Co., 1999.

Garvey, Marcus, “Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World,” in Modern Black Nationalism from Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan, edited by William L. van Deburg, New York University Press, 1997, pp. 24–31.

Hoagwood, Kimberly, “Two States of Mind in ‘Dream Variations,’” in Langston Hughes Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1983, pp. 16–18.

Hudson, Theodore R., “Langston Hughes’ Last Volume of Verse,” in CLA Journal, June 1968, pp. 345–48.

Hughes, Langston, The Big Sea: An Autobiography, Alfred A. Knopf, 1940, pp. 18–26, 325.

Ikonne, Chidi, “Affirmation of Black Self,” in From Du Bois to Van Vechten: The Early New Negro Literature, 1903-1906, reprinted in Langston Hughes, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1989, pp. 151–68.

Lawler, Mary, Marcus Garvey: Black Nationalist Leader, Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

Miller, R. Baxter, “Deep Like the Rivers,” in The Art & Imagination of Langston Hughes, The University Press of Kentucky, 1989, pp. 55–56.

Potamkin, Harry Allan, “Old Clothes,” in Nation, Vol. CXXIV, No. 3223, April 13, 1927.

Rampersad, Arnold, “On the Big Sea,” in The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 78–79.

Roessel, David, “Langston Hughes,” in American Writers: Retrospective Supplement, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1998, pp. 19–214.

Further Reading

Berry, Faith, Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem, Lawrence Hill, 1983. This biography, aimed at a general audience, explores Hughes’s personal and family life as well as his artistic career.

Emanuel, James A., Langston Hughes, Twayne Publishers, 1987. Emanuel’s work offers an in-depth analysis of Hughes’s writings, focusing on literary elements rather than the sociological approaches often used in African American literary criticism, highlighting Hughes’s diverse expressions.

Jemie, Onwuchekwa, Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry, Columbia University Press, 1976. Jemie provides an overview of Hughes’s poetry, focusing on his collected poems, which represent about one-third of his work, and briefly touches on his prose, examining major themes and techniques, particularly those related to African-American oral traditions.

Locke, Alain, “Youth Speaks,” in Survey Graphic, Vol. 4, March 1925. This article, appearing in the same issue as “Dream Variations” in 1925, is written by the esteemed African-American philosophy professor who supported young black artists, commending the achievements of the era's young black writers.

Miller, R. Baxter, The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes, The University Press of Kentucky, 1989. Miller’s book is a comprehensive study that delves into the complex patterns of meaning in Hughes’s literary imagination.