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1			As you read "Dream Variations," pay attention to Hughes's use of the imagery of black and white, dark and light. What do you notice about his manipulation of these images? How does it change in each stanza?
2			Read "Dream Variations" to yourself, paying attention to the way that the two stanzas differ form each other. How does this poem play out the idea of variations on a theme? Read "Theme for English B" in your text to get a sense of how Hughes explores a single theme in a poem. Which poetic endeavor-theme or variations-do you find most effective in conveying the mood of the poem's speaker?