To understand the references in the poem, the reader needs to know a few things about American culture in the mid-20th century—in particular, the music culture. The speaker in “Dreams” has a dream. She states, “i wanted to be / a raelet” (Lines 5-6). The Raelettes were a girl group that formed to provide backing vocals to the songs of Ray Charles—hence, their name, the Raelettes.

Ray Charles is a legendary R&B singer. Charles was a person with complete loss of sight, but that didn’t stop him from superstardom. Rolling Stone magazine named him the 10th greatest artist of all time, and “Dreams” features the lyrics to three of his hit songs: “dr o wn d in my youn tears” (Line 7) comes from “Drown in My Own Tears”; “tal kin bout tal kin bout” (Line 8) is from Charles’s “Talkin’ Bout You”; and “baaaaaby nightandday /baaaaaby nightandday” (Lines 12-13) is in “The Right Time.” As the speaker knows these lyrics and dreams of singing them, she’s a big fan of Ray Charles and the Raelettes.

As a young woman, the speaker imagines herself as Marjorie Hendricks (the common spelling is Margie Hendrix). The Raelettes had many members, but Hendrix was the star.