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Langston Hughes. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, David Roessel, eds. New York. Knopf. 1994. 708 pages. $30. ISBN 67942631-0.
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 cloudcloth / Away from the too-(tough 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 of verse--even some who have not read Hughes themselves--recall snatches of "Night coming tenderly / Black like me," from "Dream Variation," or "What happens to a dream deferred?" from "Harlem." Langston Hughes knew the sorrow and disappointment brought on by an insensitive and harsh father; the ache of loneliness from a distant and detached mother; the grief and strong sense of loss that accompanies broken, unhealed relationships; and the bitterness and pain associated with racial injustice. In spite of these misgivings, he pursued his dreams as a committed writer, at times while facing poverty. Hughes never abused the trust of the people that his poetry celebrated, nor did he abandon devotion to "wrap
ping
them" in the "melodies" of every book that he wrote. His own dreams, fed perhaps by a bruised heart, made him the perfect "Dream Keeper."
Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel have arranged The Collected Poems into five sections, according to the date of the poems' first publication. Two collections, Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and Ask Your Mama (1961), are included as they appeared in their last publication. The "Notes...