Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken – winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Langston Hughes(1902 - 1967)
(Source : Arp & Johnson. 2002 : 905)
Glossary
Hold fast to sth : continue to believe in sth resolutely or stubbornly
Barren : not good enough to produce crops
In this poem, Hughes uses two vivid metaphors to communicate the fundamental importance of a dream to a person’s life. He compares life without dreams to an injured bird and a barren frozen field to illustrate his point that without dreams, life is meaningless.
Another example of metaphor can be seen in the poem, “Rose”
The Rose
Some say love it is a river
That drowns the tender reed.
Some say love it is a razor,
That leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love it is a hunger
An endless aching need.
I say love it is a flower
And you its only seed.
It’s the heart afraid of breaking
That never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give,
And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong ,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring becomes the rose.
Amanda McBrown
(Source : Patricia. 1993 : 91)
In “ The Rose” the poet uses metaphors to compare love to several different things – a river, a razor , a hunger , a flower, a seed , and a dream , saying love is those things to make the reader understand the characteristics of love vividly.