"Dreams" analysis

The speaker of this poem is essentially the author that is describing "dreams". The diction in the first stanza is a warning--a warning to hold onto your dreams and follow them, and in the second stanza it is the same feeling, just with different uses of literary devices. There is a lot of imagery in this poem: "For if dreams die" (Hughes 2) tells that you will lose your dreams; "Life is broken-winged bird that cannot fly." (Hughes 3-4) is a metaphor that describes what it would be like if dreams were to die--we wouldn't be able to do anything; "For when dreams go" (Hughes 6) tells about when dreams will die--it is a synonym for "die" in the first stanza; "Life is a barren field filled with snow." (Hughes 7-8) is also a metaphor that describes again, what it would be like to lose your dreams.
All of these elements in this poem help to understand the meaning of this peom by giving comparisons to unlike things, all of which could be found in dreams you could have, or what it would be like to lose your "dreams". The meaning of the poem is that if you don't hold onto your dreams in life, you can never really get far--you will only be shut down, like you "cannot fly" or how life could be "a barren field filled with snow".