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=Life and Career =

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-negro-speaks-of-rivers/.
 * Langston Hughes** was born the son of Carrie Langston Hughes and James Nathaniel Hughes in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902. He is both African American and Native American. He lived with his grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, until she died. Hughes was thirteen when his grandmother died and he had to go live with his mother in Lincoln, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio, which was where he went to high school. Hughes began writing poetry in the eighth grade and was elected as Class Poet. Hughes' dream was to become a poet, but his father did not believe that Hughes could make a living at writing, so encouraged him to follow a better career. He even decided to pay Hughes' tuition to Columbia University, as long as Hughes studied engineering. Hughes did what his father wanted, but it did not last long. In a short amount of time into his engineering career, Hughes decided to drop out of college and continue with his writing of poetry. Due to this change, Hughes only focused on writing poems, and in no time, his first and one of his most famous poems got published. This famous poem is called,"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," the text taken from


 * The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.**

Later into his life, Hughes left the United States and worked on a frieghter down the west coast of Africa. He also later lived in Paris before finally coming back to the United States in 1924, where he was already widely known as a talented young poet. Here, he lived with his mother in Washington, D.C and worked in many many different jobs, including a busboy. In addition, during this time period, 1924-1967, Langston Hughes wrote many more wonderful and famous poems. Two of these poems are "Dreams," and "My People," the text taken from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-people/.


 * My People

The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.**

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from problems he had after an abdominal surgery, due to prostate cancer, at the age of sity-five. He was burned and his ashes are now located in the center of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.



= = = = = = = = =More Poetry Links = [|Dream Variations] [|As I Grew Older] [|Children's Rhymes]

Explication of "Dreams" ||  ||   **Dreams** || __Langston Hughes__  ||   ||  ||  || **   Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when Frozen with snow. ** **dreams go Life is a barren field** ||  || The poem titled "Dreams" by Langston Hughes, the text taken from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dreams-2/ , is about the effect of dreams on people. In the poem, Hughes is suggesting that you "hold fast to dreams" because your life would have no meaning without them.
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The poem is about the importance of people having dreams and their their role in people's lives. The poem begins with telling the reader that one must hold on to their dreams because if the dreams are lost, he or she will have nothing to look forward to in their life. Lines one ("Hold fast to dreams"), two ("For if dreams die"), three ("Life is a broken-winged bird") and four ("That cannot fly") are the lines from the poem that represent this idea. In the same way, lines five ("Hold fast to dreams"), six ("For when dreams go"), seven ("Life is a barren field") and eight ("Frozen with snow") represent the same idea as their previous lines, except in different words.

In other words, what Hughes is trying to reveal to all of his readers is that if you have many dreams, your life will have a meaning because you will have things to look forward to. On the other hand, Langston Hughes also reveals to his readers in this poem that if you do not have a dream and something to look forward to in your life, your life will be lonely because you will have nothing to look forward to. To prove these points, Hughes uses good examples in the poem.

Additionally, due to Hughes' explicit use of words is why I liked the poem. I also liked it becasue it made me feel like I had a little more experience about life when I was done reading the poem. In addition, the poem also relates to my life because if I did not have the dream of one day going to college and later becoming a doctor or an MLB player, I would not be able to keep up my hard work in school, as well as my hard work on my baseball skills.

In conclusion, the poem "Dreams" by Langston Hughes is an inspiring, well-thought and written poem. It is also a poem that is very simple and gets straight to the main idea from the very beginning. Overall, it is a poem that is short, but provides one with attention-grabbing information at the same time.

= Sources =

"Langston Hughes Biography." www.kansasheritage.org. 17 Nov. 2008 http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html

"Langston Hughes." www.wikipedia.org. 6 Dec. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes

"Langston Hughes." www.poemhunter.com. 6 Dec. 2008 http://www.poemhunter.com/langston-hughes/

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