Dreams

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1968

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form & Meter

“Dreams” lacks a formal meter and rhyme scheme, so the poem is an example of free verse. As the name implies, Giovanni’s poem is free. She doesn’t bond the lines to a meter—to a set amount of unstressed and stressed syllables. Giovanni can also end the lines with whatever words she wants because the lines don’t have to rhyme.

The free verse matches the freedom of the song lyrics. When Marjorie Hendricks sings, she can do what she wants with words. She breaks up “drownd” into “dr o wn d” (Line 7) and crashes “night and day” into “nightandday” (Line 13). The free verse also relates to the speaker’s freedom. She’s free to move beyond her adolescent dreams and transition to a mature adult.

Although the poem doesn’t have a stable meter, a majority of the lines stay between three to six syllables. The lines with the song lyrics—particularly Lines 7 and 8—stand out, but their conspicuousness adds to the theme. These lines attract more attention because these are the lines that represent fame and stardom.

One stanza contains all 19 lines. The solid shape of the poem reinforces the symbolism of adulthood. The poem’s speaker and the poem’s form are steady and whole. The speaker is a composed Black woman, and the unbroken form echoes the solid identity of the adult speaker.

Allusion

Allusion is a literary device that allows the poet to suggest ideas, issues, or people without explicitly naming them. Giovanni’s poem uses allusion often. Giovanni doesn’t include the word “racism” in her poem but alludes to it when her speaker says, “[B]efore i learned / black people aren’t / suppose to dream” (Lines 2-4). With allusion, the speaker can draw attention to the inequality between Black and white people without giving a dissertation or extensive lecture. Arguably, the subtlety of allusion reveals its power. In nine words, Giovanni references an entire history of horrible racism—from chattel slavery to Jim Crow laws to the racism involved in the war on drugs.

Giovanni also uses allusion to bring in the theme of fame. She never says Ray Charles, but she uses his lyrics from his famous songs and names his backing group, the Raelettes. While Giovanni explicitly names Marjorie Hendricks, she doesn’t delve into her rocky career. Thus, Hendricks serves as an allusion. The singer suggests the impracticality and instability of fame. The allusions to Charles's songs and Hendricks’s career give them a haunting quality, which adds to the dreamlike unreality of fame. Neither fame nor ghosts are rational, reliable creatures. They're unpredictable and precarious, and they don't tend to inspire sweetness.

Irony

Irony is a literary device that allows the poet to subvert the reader’s expectations and surprise them. Giovanni uses irony to undercut the idea of dreams. She provides a twist to the concept—a clever or ironic perspective on dreams. Dreams seem like a good thing, but in Giovanni’s poem, they arguably symbolize something bad—or, if bad is too strong, then something impracticable or unsustainable. Dreams link to fame, and fame is hazardous. Fame is powerful and emotional, like the song lyrics, but it’s also precarious, like Marjorie Hendricks’s career.

The dream irony adds another layer to the meaning of “black people aren’t / suppose to dream” (Lines 3-4). The ironic interpretation suggests Black people have enough to worry about without involving themselves in fantasies of stardom—stardom only leads to more trouble. In other words, Black people aren't supposed to dream because their reality is extremely fraught already.

Another ironic interpretation indicates that the best dreams aren’t fantastical but functional. An admirable dream isn’t about tumultuous stardom but maturity and sensibility. Ironically, laudable dreams—the kinds that produce “sweet inspiration” (Line 19)—don't connect to fantasies but to thinking and living realistically. With irony, the poem expands, and the reader can analyze the alternate ways to think about dreams, race, gender, hope, and adulthood.