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The Black Heralds Theme of Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

Ooh—you thought you finally found a positive aspect of "The Black Heralds"? Well, wrong-o! No soup for you! Sorry, folks, all dreams, hopes, and plans are made only to be dashed by that mean old universe. You want some fresh-baked bread? Too bad; it burned on its way out of the oven.

Questions About Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

  1. How are dreams, hopes, and plans represented in the poem?
  2. Do you think the speaker has had any dashed dreams or ruined plans? What do you think they were?
  3. Have you ever had your hopes up only to be let down? Did you feel like the speaker does in the poem?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Humanity is at the mercy of chaos, and so all its plans go to waste. (You can quit planning now.)

Like a really bad GPS system, hope misleads people.