A Poem Entitled Dreams


This essay was written in 2016 as a response for a poem entitled Dreams by Langston Hughes that can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/dreams

Poetry is not something that I fancy, because I think it is hard to find a remarkable one. But, I do enjoy reading a pile of poems sometimes, whenever I feel the need to find someone who could speak all of my emotions into beautiful words. Unfortunately, I do not find the poem from last session is interesting at all, but aside from it I am going to scrutinize it into five; sound, meanings, repetition, patterns of discourse, and figurative language, to see the overall aspects of the poem.
Sound talks about the matter of how the words of the poem talk to the readers, and there are many devices such as rhythms and rhymes. There are only little rhymes that I could find on the poem such as die and fly, and go and snow. Regarding to the rhythms, I could barely find one not because of the poem, but honestly because I do not really get how it works and how to find one.
Meaning is another important aspect of a poem, regardless of how there are various interpretations for every reader; we can see it from its connotative and denotative meanings. The poem mainly uses connotative words such as the words such as fly, hold fast, with metaphors that I am going to write later. There is barely denotative word inside the poem.
Repetition is something that is highlighted throughout this poem. There are two stanzas with “hold fast to dreams”, two words “for”, and two “life is a”. The whole poems are basically made up of those repetitions.
Patterns of discourse are something that I could not understand. I do not get how and what are actually patterns of discourse of a poem. With that being said, I could not write any thoughts of patterns of discourse from the poem.
Figurative language is another aspect that builds the poem, such as metaphors, simile, and personification. “Life is a broken-winged bird” and “Life is a barren field” are two metaphors contained. There is also personification in “For if dreams die” and “For when dreams go”. For the aspect of simile, the poem does not use any of it.


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