Given the task of finding and analyzing a poem, I was clueless as to where to start looking; I have never been a big fan of poetry and cannot honestly say I have a "favorite" poet. Nonetheless, I began by recollecting the names of some poets which had, at some time or another, stood out. I wanted to pick a poem which, while conveying a lot of emotions, would not be too sentimental or exclusive. Consequently, I decided I would choose a poem with a universal message so that it would speak to almost all readers. After searching for a while, I stumbled on a poem called "Harlem" by Langston Hughes. I suddenly realized that I had encountered this poem before during high school when I learned about the Harlem Renaissance and thought it would be an excellent choice for this assignment.
The first line of the poem asks "what happens to a dream deferred?" and the rest of the poem asks rhetorical questions to respond to this. What I found interesting about this poem was the fact that each stanza began with a simile. "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Does it stink like rotten meat?" In addition, the use of imagery really captures the mood of the poem. "rotten meat" for example, carries a very negative connotation and by comparing it to a deferred dream, Hughes demonstrates how disgusting it is to put off dreams. Hughes also proposes various consequences to deferring dreams using analogous similes. "Does it dry up?" Dreams can vanish if they are not pursued. "Or fester like a sore?" Dreams can bring a lot of pain if they are unfulfilled. "Or crust and sugar over like a syrrupy sweet?" Dreams can become inaccessible if they are not followed.
The second stanza is not a question but rather a suggestion: "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load." A heavy load makes one unable to move freely, but Hughes is suggesting this in a figurative sense; dreams can weigh down on one's mind with musings like "what might have been", "if only", and "I guess I'll never know." In the last line, Hughes employs a metaphor instead of a simile. "Or does it explode?" The poem suggests that deferred dreams can result in destruction since they bring upon the dreamer a sense of helplessness and incompetence which can result in great despair.
The universality of this poem despite its main target of African-Americans living during times of menacing segregation makes it easy to appreciate and internalize.
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