Summary and Critical Analysis

The poem Dream Variations by Langston Hughes is a nostalgic lyric which

poignantly expresses the singer’s wish for a carefree life away from color persecution
and racial discrimination.

The title of the poem suggests Hughes’s main theme of the Afro-American dream.
This poem is notable for its musical changes.

In Hughes’s own words, his poetry is about "workers, roustabouts and singers, and
job hunters… in New York,…. in Washington or… in Chicago- people up today and
down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but
determined not to be wholly beaten…".
The poet wants to enjoy different types of games in some sunny place. He likes to
move and dance until the end of the happy day. Then in the evening he wants to rest
under a tall tree until it is dark. This is his dream. But the reality is different. He has to
work in spite of the hot sun. He keeps on working as if he were dancing and moving
round. Because he is very busy, the day passes so quickly. He feels weak in the
evening and wants to have a rest. But his desire to take a rest is incomplete. His desire
to find a tall, slim tree remains incomplete in the city.
The night comes painfully reminding him that he is black, not white; like the night
which nobody likes. In this poem the poet longs for the freedom of a less complicated
world. This nostalgic look at Africa was typical of the work of many writers at that
time.
Hughes presents the reader with two stanzas that look and sound very similar, but are,
in fact, opposites. In the first stanza Hughes tells about how he wants to live in
relaxation and peace, dancing, playing games, and "rest at cool evening beneath a tall
tree while night comes on gently." He dreams of living a carefree life without the
burden of racial discrimination and persecution. However, reality is the cruel
opposite. He must work non-stop, quickly as though he is dancing and whirling
about, and at the end of the day, he is weak and needs rest, but the desire is
incomplete. There is no tall tree to sit under in the city. The existence of the burdens
of racial inequality will still bear down upon him the next day.
The first stanza describes the poet’s dream. He wishes for a carefree life away from
color persecution and racial discrimination. In his dream even the night is not black: it
is only dark. In the first dream he is not in the city. He is completely engrossed in the
rural area. But in the second stanza, he dreams after the tiring day’s work. The dream
to take a rest under a tree remains unfulfilled. The first stanza describes his nostalgic
feelings which he enjoyed in the past. In the second one his dream is incomplete.
There are different types of dreams described in the poem. That’s why the poem is
entitled ‘Dream Variations’.
In the first stanza, there are nine lines, but in the second one there are eight lines. In
the first stanza we find twenty-two stressed syllables and in the second there are
twenty-one stressed ones. In the first stanza mostly we find unstressed syllables
between stress ones, but in the second stanza we find two lines where there is not an
unstressed syllable between the stressed syllables.” Dance! Whirl? Whirl! … A tall,
slim, tree … “This quick tempo matches with the sense. To quote Alexander Pope,
“The sound must seem an echo to the sense”.
The prime theme of the poem is to set a contrast between light and dark. The light
and dark mentioned in the poem predominantly suggest the white and black culture
being practiced in America. Here, “the white day” caters the meaning of workaday
world where all the dominating positions are occupied by the white people. “the white
day” does not simply mean the sunny day. The speaker of the poem compares
himself/herself with the dark night, which is looked scornfully by all the people. The
speaker wishes for the color free world and prejudices free behaviors.

The tone in the first stanza seems lighthearted from the glorious visions Hughes has
for his perfect life, but diminishes in the second stanza to a weak and vulnerable tone,
as though the purpose for living at the time had, itself, diminished as well. However,
the tone starting out as joyous and light hearted gives the reader the idea that although
the narrator is miserable, he still had hope for a better future. There is still a time
when he will be able to "to fling [his] arms wide in some place of the sun to whirl and
to dance till the white day is done."

The lack of an identified narrator gives the poem a sense of universality, as though
these thoughts could come from anyone in the African American community, and
gives the sense that this it is not only the narrator that conjures these thoughts, but the
thoughts of many. The use of first person allows a personal connection between the
narrator and the reader as though the narrator is someone conveying his joys and
sorrows. It allows the reader to feel empathy for the narrator because the use of first
person pronouns make the reader read the poem as through he or she is this
persecuted African American. A third person point of view would not have the same
effect on the reader, for now the reader can shrug off the words because there is no
personal connection to empathize with.

The poem follows an end rhyme scheme of ABCBDEEE ABFBDEEE, and is typical
of a blues style poem. The theme of despair and struggle common among blues poems
coincides with Hughes's Dream Variations as he tells of the struggles of African
Americans in American society and the troubles they face in a racist society.
However, he deviates from the pattern of making a statement in the first line, a
variation of that statement in the second, and an ironic alternative in the third. Hughes
makes his main point and variations on that point in the first stanza and the ironic
alternative in the second stanza. The vague word choice in his sentences makes the
reader have to analyze the poem deeper to catch the true meaning behind Hughes's
words. The slight change in the words in the second stanza makes the two seem
identical at first, but upon deeper analysis, it is discovered that the first and second
stanzas are actually opposites: the first telling of his glorious dreams for the future and
the second the dull dreary life the narrator currently lives.