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Harlem
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Langston Hughes
629 books2,155 followersThrough poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include
Weary Blues
(1926) and
The Ways of White Folks
(1934).
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 26, 2017
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
October 26, 2021
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
The poem replicates the post-World War II mood of many African Americans. The Great Depression was over the war was over, but for African Americans the dream, whatever fastidious form it took, was still being deferred.
Whether one’s dream is as commonplace as hitting the numbers or as noble as hoping to see one’s children reared suitably, Langston Hughes takes them all sincerely; he takes the adjournment of each dream to heart.
In a broad term, the ‘dream’ in this poem refers to the Black American people’s dream for the “right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: for equality, liberty and fraternity; for opportunity in the land of affluence for a respected Life and dignified ethnic identity, and so on, which America is good at promising in loud voices, if not to let them have or give.
Hughes has attempted to clarify and illumine the Negro condition in America. “Harlem” questions the social consequences of so many deferred dreams.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution— approved in the post-Civil War era—granted black Americans basic rights a American citizens, as did the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
However, legislative decisions later weakened the legal protection of blacks. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 that it was legal to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for passengers of Louisiana’s railroads this ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks libraries, and so on.
In the meantime, hate groups inflicted ruthless treatment on naive blacks, including vicious beatings. Lynching of innocent blacks was quite common.
Many so-called “enlightened” or “liberal-minded” Americans chose to look the other way, including law-enforcement officers, clergymen, politician and ordinary Americans. By the mid-20th Century, black aggravation against white oppression formed itself into a compelling blasting powder.
Hughes has compared a dream with several things in the poem from a dried raisin to a running sore.
He asks about what happened to the dreams?
Did they dry away or remained in the eyes paining them like a sore?
Dreams are relevant to everyone’s lives and are found in every eye. Some live their dream and for some life never offers a chance to make their dreams reality. Dreams are sweet if they are realized and otherwise they can become a burden on the heart. The lower class African Americans lived a life that was a running sore in itself.
Far from the supposed ‘Great American dream’ they are bound to slaughter their own dreams for they were never given the right to them.
The poet’s comparisons of a dream are complex. We typically do not contrast a dream with these things like load or sore. The lines habitually paint a harsh picture of dream that died in the womb. While on the one hand the poet motivates us to think of our dreams that never became a truth because they had to be deferred and on the other he tries to show us what unrealized dreams might become.
They might remain hanging to us like a lumber on our conscience, sometimes their load is totally impossible to carry. Or maybe they explode with a bang shaking our soul and leaving us devastated. Whatever happens to a deferred dream, it is hard to imagine an evocative finale for it.
The first line of the poem poses a huge, open question that the following sub-questions both answer and extend.
The second stanza (lines 2-8) presents a series of questions as an alternative answer to what happens to a deferred (postponed) dream.
The first probable answer to his own question is: “Does it dry up! like a raisin in the sun?”
This image carries the nuance that the dream was a living article - and now it has been dried up; a dry raisin, unlike dried of other kinds is lifeless.
Besides drying must also mean shrink, become minimal. It is necessary to analyze each image in terms of the feelings of the speaker, rather than finding out the objective qualities of the image (though that is unavoidable). The first image in the proposes that the dream dries up like a raisin.
This simile likens the original dream to a grape, which is round, juicy, green and fresh. Since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up.
The next simile of the sore, “Or does it fester like a soar and then run?” communicates a sense of pollution and soreness.
Comparing the dream to a sore on the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of us, like a longstanding injury that has gathered pus Neglected injuries may lead to infection, even death.
The word “fester” indicates furious decay and “run” literally refers to pus. From the viewpoint of the speaker, this denotes to the in that one has when one’s dreams always defers. A postponed dream is like a painful injury that begins to be infected.
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The next question: “Does it stink like rotten meat?” intensifies the disgust.
A dream deferred may also stink, with the smell of rotten meat, Hughes suggests that dreams deferred will pester one continually, making one sick until they are cared for. The poet also hints at the catastrophic results ignoring people’s dreams.
The fourth alternative guess about what will happen to the dream postponed is that it will “crust and sugar over”, which means that it will make a layer of covering and seem to be healed.
A crusty or syrupy sweet will not kill people as meat and sores may, but the image in connotes waste, neglect, and decay. The “sweet’ may represent American dreams of equality and success that are denied to most African Americans. A sweet gone bad is all of the broken promises of emancipation r- reconstruction, integration, and equal opportunity.
The third paragraph forms the only sentence that is not a question.
Hughes says that the deferred dream may just “sag” (bend with overload; this image implies that although neglecting dreams may yield varied and unforeseeable horrors, one thing is certain: deferred dreams weigh one down physically and emotionally as heavily as a load of bricks.
From the standpoint of the speaker this suggests that their unfulfilled dreams have been heavy on them. Hughes italicizes the la line to emphasize the larger consequences of mass dissatisfaction: “Or do it explode?” The poet implies that an explosion as well as the affiliated individual. Eventually the plague of aggravation will hurt everyone.
The whole poem is built into the structure of rhetoric. The speaker of the poem is black poet. Black people were given the dreams of equity and equality but these dreams never came true.
Despite legal, political and social consensus to abolish the apartheid, black people could never experience the indiscriminate society. In other worlds, their dream never came true. Blacks are promised dreams of equality, justice, freedom, indiscrimination, but not fulfilled. They are delayed, deferred and postponed. Only promissory note has been given, but has never been brought into reality.
Through this poem Langston Hughes examines the possible effects caused by the dream, when they are constantly deferred. When the dreams are constantly deferred, or when dreams are constantly postponed and delayed, we are naturally cut between hope and hopelessness. The dreams remain in the mind like a heavy load. When these loads are extended, explosions are inevitable. The speaker rhetorically suggests that the dreams ‘ill explode and destroy all the limitations imposed upon them. After that the society of their dream will be born.
The poem is in the form of a series of questions a certain inhabitant ‘f Harlem asks (to himself or to someone listening to him): “What happens to a dream deferred?”
He does try to answer tentatively, but his questions are more telling than the attempt at an answer. The poem develops a series f images of decay and waste, representing the dream (or the dreamer’s) predicament.
While many of the possible consequences affect only the individual dreamer, the end of the poem suggests that, when despair is widely prevalent it may “explode” and cause larger social dents.
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
The poem replicates the post-World War II mood of many African Americans. The Great Depression was over the war was over, but for African Americans the dream, whatever fastidious form it took, was still being deferred.
Whether one’s dream is as commonplace as hitting the numbers or as noble as hoping to see one’s children reared suitably, Langston Hughes takes them all sincerely; he takes the adjournment of each dream to heart.
In a broad term, the ‘dream’ in this poem refers to the Black American people’s dream for the “right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: for equality, liberty and fraternity; for opportunity in the land of affluence for a respected Life and dignified ethnic identity, and so on, which America is good at promising in loud voices, if not to let them have or give.
Hughes has attempted to clarify and illumine the Negro condition in America. “Harlem” questions the social consequences of so many deferred dreams.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution— approved in the post-Civil War era—granted black Americans basic rights a American citizens, as did the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
However, legislative decisions later weakened the legal protection of blacks. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 that it was legal to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for passengers of Louisiana’s railroads this ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks libraries, and so on.
In the meantime, hate groups inflicted ruthless treatment on naive blacks, including vicious beatings. Lynching of innocent blacks was quite common.
Many so-called “enlightened” or “liberal-minded” Americans chose to look the other way, including law-enforcement officers, clergymen, politician and ordinary Americans. By the mid-20th Century, black aggravation against white oppression formed itself into a compelling blasting powder.
Hughes has compared a dream with several things in the poem from a dried raisin to a running sore.
He asks about what happened to the dreams?
Did they dry away or remained in the eyes paining them like a sore?
Dreams are relevant to everyone’s lives and are found in every eye. Some live their dream and for some life never offers a chance to make their dreams reality. Dreams are sweet if they are realized and otherwise they can become a burden on the heart. The lower class African Americans lived a life that was a running sore in itself.
Far from the supposed ‘Great American dream’ they are bound to slaughter their own dreams for they were never given the right to them.
The poet’s comparisons of a dream are complex. We typically do not contrast a dream with these things like load or sore. The lines habitually paint a harsh picture of dream that died in the womb. While on the one hand the poet motivates us to think of our dreams that never became a truth because they had to be deferred and on the other he tries to show us what unrealized dreams might become.
They might remain hanging to us like a lumber on our conscience, sometimes their load is totally impossible to carry. Or maybe they explode with a bang shaking our soul and leaving us devastated. Whatever happens to a deferred dream, it is hard to imagine an evocative finale for it.
The first line of the poem poses a huge, open question that the following sub-questions both answer and extend.
The second stanza (lines 2-8) presents a series of questions as an alternative answer to what happens to a deferred (postponed) dream.
The first probable answer to his own question is: “Does it dry up! like a raisin in the sun?”
This image carries the nuance that the dream was a living article - and now it has been dried up; a dry raisin, unlike dried of other kinds is lifeless.
Besides drying must also mean shrink, become minimal. It is necessary to analyze each image in terms of the feelings of the speaker, rather than finding out the objective qualities of the image (though that is unavoidable). The first image in the proposes that the dream dries up like a raisin.
This simile likens the original dream to a grape, which is round, juicy, green and fresh. Since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up.
The next simile of the sore, “Or does it fester like a soar and then run?” communicates a sense of pollution and soreness.
Comparing the dream to a sore on the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of us, like a longstanding injury that has gathered pus Neglected injuries may lead to infection, even death.
The word “fester” indicates furious decay and “run” literally refers to pus. From the viewpoint of the speaker, this denotes to the in that one has when one’s dreams always defers. A postponed dream is like a painful injury that begins to be infected.
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The next question: “Does it stink like rotten meat?” intensifies the disgust.
A dream deferred may also stink, with the smell of rotten meat, Hughes suggests that dreams deferred will pester one continually, making one sick until they are cared for. The poet also hints at the catastrophic results ignoring people’s dreams.
The fourth alternative guess about what will happen to the dream postponed is that it will “crust and sugar over”, which means that it will make a layer of covering and seem to be healed.
A crusty or syrupy sweet will not kill people as meat and sores may, but the image in connotes waste, neglect, and decay. The “sweet’ may represent American dreams of equality and success that are denied to most African Americans. A sweet gone bad is all of the broken promises of emancipation r- reconstruction, integration, and equal opportunity.
The third paragraph forms the only sentence that is not a question.
Hughes says that the deferred dream may just “sag” (bend with overload; this image implies that although neglecting dreams may yield varied and unforeseeable horrors, one thing is certain: deferred dreams weigh one down physically and emotionally as heavily as a load of bricks.
From the standpoint of the speaker this suggests that their unfulfilled dreams have been heavy on them. Hughes italicizes the la line to emphasize the larger consequences of mass dissatisfaction: “Or do it explode?” The poet implies that an explosion as well as the affiliated individual. Eventually the plague of aggravation will hurt everyone.
The whole poem is built into the structure of rhetoric. The speaker of the poem is black poet. Black people were given the dreams of equity and equality but these dreams never came true.
Despite legal, political and social consensus to abolish the apartheid, black people could never experience the indiscriminate society. In other worlds, their dream never came true. Blacks are promised dreams of equality, justice, freedom, indiscrimination, but not fulfilled. They are delayed, deferred and postponed. Only promissory note has been given, but has never been brought into reality.
Through this poem Langston Hughes examines the possible effects caused by the dream, when they are constantly deferred. When the dreams are constantly deferred, or when dreams are constantly postponed and delayed, we are naturally cut between hope and hopelessness. The dreams remain in the mind like a heavy load. When these loads are extended, explosions are inevitable. The speaker rhetorically suggests that the dreams ‘ill explode and destroy all the limitations imposed upon them. After that the society of their dream will be born.
The poem is in the form of a series of questions a certain inhabitant ‘f Harlem asks (to himself or to someone listening to him): “What happens to a dream deferred?”
He does try to answer tentatively, but his questions are more telling than the attempt at an answer. The poem develops a series f images of decay and waste, representing the dream (or the dreamer’s) predicament.
While many of the possible consequences affect only the individual dreamer, the end of the poem suggests that, when despair is widely prevalent it may “explode” and cause larger social dents.
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
February 8, 2025
I was introduced to Langston Hughes by my 7th grade English teacher. She had me memorize one of his poems and recite it for the class. Since then, I’ve always loved to re-read his work. I love the metaphors he uses. It being Black History Month, I’ve been making an effort this month to incorporate starters in my classes each day that relate to Black History. This week in my advisory class we watched a video about Langston Hughes and listened to a poem. Then we wrote a quick response to it. We shared what we felt the meaning of the poem was and how it related to the time in which it was written. I’m grateful for a wonderful teacher in 7th grade who inspired me to pass on an impactful lesson to my 7th grade students.
August 22, 2023
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
so cool
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
so cool
February 21, 2025
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
December 31, 2017
EL '17.
February 22, 2019
I think I will 5 star anything Dr. Dalia teaches.
October 22, 2025
I do understand that everyone has this question but I don't understand is what does the title got to with it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2025
What happens to a dream deferred? The older we get, the more we know, or don't know. Short and sweet, but deep.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews