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Article: The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- January 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Early in his career, Langston Hughes dubbed himself the "Dream Keeper," and for most of his life, the theme of the dreamer and the dream is associated with his struggle to tell the story of Black America in the context of the American dream. In the 1925 poem "The Dream Keeper" Hughes writes: "Bring me all of your dreams, / You dreamers, / Bring me all of your / Heart melodies / That I may wrap them / In a blue cloud-cloth / Away from the too-rough fingers / Of the world."
From 1921 to 1967, the year that he died, Hughes tenderly revisioned the dreams of common folk and etched them in the memory of Americans, both black and white. Almost every American who is a lover ...