I Dream a World

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn. 

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind -- 

Of such I dream, my world!

Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, ed. Arnold Rampersand (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994)