“Dream Variations” was written by the American poet Langston Hughes. The poem's speaker dreams of dancing through the "white day" before resting at night, which is as "dark" as the speaker himself. The speaker’s "dreams" can be read as a metaphor for Black joy and Black survival: through his dancing, the speaker finds joy and freedom in spite of white society’s oppressive gaze, as well as a sense of belonging, safety, and shared identity in the Black community. “Dream Variations” was originally published in The Weary Blues (1926), Hughes’s first poetry collection.
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The Full Text of “Dream Variations”
The Full Text of “Dream Variations”
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“Dream Variations” Summary
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“Dream Variations” Themes
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Resisting Racist Oppression
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-17
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Black Art, Joy, and Survival
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-17
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Dream Variations”
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Lines 1-2
To fling my ...
... of the sun, -
Lines 3-4
To whirl and ...
... day is done. -
Lines 5-6
Then rest at ...
... a tall tree -
Lines 7-9
While night comes ...
... is my dream! -
Lines 10-11
To fling my ...
... of the sun, -
Lines 12-13
Dance! Whirl! Whirl! ...
... day is done. -
Lines 14-15
Rest at pale ...
... . . . -
Lines 16-17
Night coming tenderly ...
... Black like me.
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“Dream Variations” Symbols
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Dancing
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3: “To whirl and to dance”
- Line 12: “Dance! Whirl! Whirl!”
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The Tree
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 5-6: “Then rest at cool evening / Beneath a tall tree”
- Lines 14-15: “Rest at pale evening . . . / A tall, slim tree . . .”
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“Dream Variations” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 4: “white day”
- Lines 7-8: “While night comes on gently, / Dark like me—”
- Line 13: “quick day”
- Line 14: “pale evening”
- Lines 16-17: “Night coming tenderly / Black like me.”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Line 8: “Dark like me”
- Line 17: “Black like me.”
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Anaphora
Where anaphora appears in the poem:- Line 1: “To”
- Line 3: “To,” “to”
- Line 10: “To”
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Parallelism
Where parallelism appears in the poem:- Lines 1-8
- Lines 10-17
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Juxtaposition
Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:- Lines 1-4
- Line 5
- Lines 7-8
- Lines 10-13
- Line 14
- Lines 16-17
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Imagery
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Line 4: “white day”
- Line 5: “cool evening”
- Line 6: “tall tree”
- Lines 7-8: “While night comes on gently, / Dark like me”
- Line 14: “pale evening”
- Line 15: “tall, slim tree”
- Lines 16-17: “Night coming tenderly / Black like me.”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 4: “done.”
- Line 8: “me—”
- Line 9: “dream!”
- Line 12: “Whirl!”
- Line 13: “done.”
- Line 14: “evening . . .”
- Line 15: “tree . . .”
- Line 17: “me.”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “some,” “sun”
- Line 3: “whirl,” “dance”
- Line 4: “white,” “day ,” “done”
- Line 6: “tall tree”
- Line 8: “Dark”
- Line 9: “dream”
- Line 10: “fling”
- Line 11: “face”
- Line 13: “day,” “done”
- Line 15: “tall,” “tree”
- Line 16: “tenderly”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “fling”
- Line 2: “place”
- Line 3: “whirl”
- Line 4: “Till”
- Line 6: “tall,” “tree”
- Line 7: “night,” “gently”
- Line 8: “Dark”
- Line 9: “dream”
- Line 10: “fling”
- Line 11: “face”
- Line 13: “Till”
- Line 14: “pale”
- Line 15: “tall,” “slim”
- Line 16: “tenderly”
- Line 17: “Black,” “like”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 2: “place”
- Line 4: “day”
- Line 5: “evening”
- Line 6: “tree”
- Line 8: “me”
- Line 9: “dream”
- Line 11: “face”
- Line 13: “day”
- Line 14: “evening”
- Line 15: “tree”
- Line 17: “me”
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“Dream Variations” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Variations
- Fling
- Whirl
- Pale
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(Location in poem: )
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Dream Variations”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Dream Variations” Speaker
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“Dream Variations” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Dream Variations”
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More “Dream Variations” Resources
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External Resources
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The Jazz Aesthetic — Read about the jazz aesthetic that Hughes pioneered: a form of poetry that draws on the musical traditions of jazz and the blues.
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Smithsonian Article on Black Like Me — Learn about Black Like Me, the 1961 nonfiction work by John Howard Griffin that takes its title from the last line of "Dream Variations." In the book, Griffin, who was white, documents his experiences traveling through the segregated American South while passing as Black.
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Langston Hughes Reads His Work — Listen to Langston Hughes read from his work at this archive from the Yale Library.
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A Biography of Langston Hughes — Learn about Langston Hughes's life and work in this biographical article from the Poetry Foundation.
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The Weary Blues — Learn more about The Weary Blues, the 1926 collection that included "Dream Variations," in this essay by contemporary American poet Kevin Young.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes
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