Two themes in "Dreams" by Langston Hughes are the importance of hope and losing faith.

The importance of hope is a major theme in the poem. Hughes advises his readers to keep their dreams close. Dreams are manifestations of hope—the hope that things in life can be the way we want and the hope that we can make our dreams into reality. It's clear that Hughes believes hope is something that makes life more bearable and happier. Without it, life isn't as good.

Losing faith is another theme in the poem. Hughes shows that when a person loses faith in their dreams—in themselves—it's to their detriment. Hughes says losing your dreams makes life like a lame bird or a barren, frozen field. It's empty and unable to move forward if you lose faith and don't have dreams to help guide and motivate you.

"Dreams" is a very straightforward encouragement to the reader to not give up when life becomes challenging. Hughes first compares the death of a dream with "a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Just as the bird would be incapable of flight, a dream that has died will never be brought to fruition.

Next, Hughes encourages the reader to "hold fast to dreams" and to not allow them to escape or "go." Life without dreams, he explains, is as cold and desolate as "a barren field frozen with snow."

The theme of the poem lies in its instructions to the reader to hold fast to dreams and to keep striving to make them happen, regardless of obstacles or complications along the way.