Now dreams
Are not available
To the dreamers,
Nor songs
To the singers.

In some lands
Dark night
And cold steel
Prevail

But the dream
Will come back,
And the song
Break
Its jail.

I chose this poem because the title itself caught my attention and the last stanza said “its jail” and the first line starts with “now dreams.” in the poem oppression Hughes talks about the absences of dreams and songs due to the suffocation of oppression that the were enduring.He illustrates this by expressing they’re in a jail.furthermore, he talks more about the brutality of prevailing the land in everything such as forcing people to be silent and that there is no light but darkness in a way its like finding the light at the end of the tunnel seems impossible to reach.I believe that to know back in the 50s POC were experiencing issues like this. and to know modern day we still struggle to accumulate greatness in this country just shows how oppression surely have not made a jump too far from the tree mainly because we are still at the bottom in a lot of aspects.even in Latin America countries many countries, still have barriers in economic status, skin color, and freedom and we know that’s true because it happened in Cuba with Celia cruz exiled for exposing gov corruption through salsa music and Augusto boal from Brazil also was inprisoned and later exiled. for staging the dictatorship in theater showcasing the injustice.I deeply think that Hughes outlines a powerful message stating that the day oppression is no longer a problem in the United States or in other countries will come to an end.

By Rose Hernandez

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