The poem has multiple genres. As it’s short and expresses Hughes’s beliefs on the fundamental need for dreams, the poem qualifies as a lyric—its tiny, compact form reads almost like a song or song lyrics. Since the speaker wants to teach the reader a lesson about what happens to people when their dreams “die” (Line 2) and “go” (Line 6), the poem also works as a parable. The speaker tells the story of eradicated dreams to instruct the reader why they should “[h]old fast to dreams” (Lines 1, 5).

The speaker doesn’t have a name, gender, race, or identifying characteristics. Many readers and critics call Hughes the speaker of his poems due to the close relationship between his work and life—but within this poem, the speaker remains anonymous. The nameless, unidentified speaker reinforces the parable genre. It’s as if the speaker is not a person but an oracle or an all-knowing deity, trying to communicate worldly knowledge. Conversely, the speaker sounds like an unnamed philosopher educating their audience about the pertinence of preserving dreams.

The tone is wise and thoughtful, and the poem’s neat, symmetrical form highlights the purposeful, measured tone.