Harlem-Langston Hughes

Harlem by Langston Hughes is a short poem that is all about a question asked in the first line of the poem. In the first line, Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” I don’t know if the double space after the line is done by Hughes or by the website we got the poem from, but it helps lengthen the pause after the question so that the reader really thinks about the question. Truly, what does happen to a dream deferred?

Hughes continues to further answer his question with more questions. “Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?” In other words, does the dream just shrivel as it hangs in limbo, slowly withering away, cooking and burning to nothing?

“Or fester like a sore—/And then run?” The hyphens again help the reader take a distinct pause to visualize what Hughes is talking about. A festering sore is not a pretty sight in my mind. I imagine the open wound sitting and collecting bacteria and filth, filling with pus, until it oozes out.

“Does it stink like rotten meat?” Again, like the lines about the sore, this makes the dream sound disgusting. In this instance, I related the dream almost directly to stinking trash as it rotted away with flies buzzing all around it.

“Or crust and sugar over—/like a syrupy sweet?” Although in my mind this is not as disgusting as rotten meat or a festering sore, a crusting sweet is still going along the same lines. The sweet sits out and crusts over, giving it an aged appearance.

Again, a double space, aiding in the pause as the reader recollects on the ideas Hughes has just presented. And then the lines, “Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load.” To me, this had a very dull and melancholy tone to it.

The final line of the poem reads, “Or does it explode?” In my mind this was Hughes explaining the dream just disappears. However, I don’t necessarily agree with Hughes here. I think the dream remains in the back of our minds and festers like a sore. When we want something bad enough, we never truly forget about it. We may realize we will never achieve all of the dreams we want, but I don’t think that we ever truly forget.

Overall I think Hughes’ analogies created a very pessimistic tone. He could have said dreams deferred wait and grow like flowers, however he chose to compare them to rotting meat and festering sores. Obviously Hughes feels pretty negatively about dreams that are belittled or unfulfilled.