Poetry

Langston Hughes is a famous black poet who is most notable for portraying black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. Similar to Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Hughes did not sugar coat the idea of black America and his hopes and dreams for the country (http://www.poets.org/).
Dreams
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.

In Langston Hughes’s poem called Dreams, he clearly expresses the idea that life is nothing unless you have dreams and aspirations. Martin Luther King Jr. was also a very firm believer in the power of achieving dreams. In “I Have a Dream” MLK strongly voiced his dream that all men should be created equal. Through his poems, books, plays and other works of literature Langston Hughes also portrays his dreams.

The Weary Blues was Hughes’s first publicized work of literature. In this poem he describes black tradition and culture and how the only thing that keeps him going is the music of the "blues" in a time period of racism and discrimination (cai.ucdavis.edu ). The poem has a dark tone to it but is somewhat uplifting in the sense that one day there will be an equalized America.