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Product_catalog : School : LitLink : Grade08 : Dreams
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Harold Ober Associates. "Dreams," "A Dream Deferred," and "The Dream Keeper" from COLLECTED POEMS by Langston Hughes. Reprinted/recorded by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes.

During Reading Strategy
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Guided Reading Question 1
What should we do with our dreams?
Click to answer

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.


A Dream Deferred

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?1

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

 

Guided Reading Question 2
Name one thing that the speaker says could happen to a dream deferred.
Click to answer

The Dream Keeper

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.

Guided Reading Question 3
What does the speaker want to do with our dreams?
Click to answer

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