As a child growing up everyone seems to have the ideal life set in their mind. You know what you want to do with your life; you know everything there is to know. Or do you? Dreams start out simple and later grow complex. At a young age you look up to people in your life and want to be just like them and want to marry fabulous people with an ideal type set in your mind. You grow up and come to realize that things aren't as easy as you expected them to be. In 1951 Langston Hughes asks us "What happens to a dream deferred"? or to put a whole new spin on things what happens to a "Dream Deferred" when your in "Harlem"? Langston Hughes wrote one poem and it was titled two different titles throughout his life, each title gives the poem a profoundly different reading. .
Reading this poem with the title "Dream Deferred" makes it universal, anyone can relate to it. The majority of the world can relate to having a dream deferred in their life, and this poem is away for them to relate. The questions Hughes is asking the reader make them think about their dreams they had and what happened to them, "Does [the dream] stink like rotten meant?"(ln. 6) .
As the reader encounters the strophe of questions they reflect back on their dreams and do a type of self analysis almost. Reading "Dream Deferred" is a self exploring, thought provoking poem about the past and future for you. .
On the other hand if the poem is read with the title "Harlem" people automatically attach stereotypes to the name such as poverty and label it a black neighborhood where nothing good will come out of it. With the title "Harlem" the first line, "What happens to a dream deferred?" Has so much more meaning you can interpret dream to be the dream of the African Americans in general, a personal dream, the dream of Harlem to become more then it is at that time, and it can be generalized to fit the circumstances of that time. I associate the word dream with Martin Luther King Jr.
I found the poem, "Harlem," by Langston Hughes to be extremely powerful, albeit short. ... Harlem was a place that many African-Americans felt safe from discrimination. ... The author asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?" ... Hughes related his poem to the difficult times in the early 1950's, in Harlem. Harlem was, and still is, a primarily African-American community. ...
Hughes poem "Harlem" inquires what happens to dreams deferred. ... Langston Hughes the author of the poem "Harlem" asks "what happens to a dream deferred?... Langston Hughes goes on and uses metaphors to give vivid examples on how a dream can be deferred. ... The next metaphor asks does a dream deferred fester like a sore and then run (Hughes 4-5). ... By comparing a dream to a sore that festers it shows that dream deferred can be painful externally, then the sore leaks out. ...
The poem "A Dream Deferred", or as some call it "Harlem", reflects back on the time in history of the Harlem Renaissance. ... Everyone, black or white, strives to achieve what becomes known as the American dream. ... To emphasize the inquisitive contemplation of the poem, the first line utilizes syntax with the rhetorical question "What happens to a dream deferred?" ... The last line of the poem is in italics and set apart to catch the reader's attention, and give an ultimate ending to a dream deferred. ... The author implies that no matter what happens in the "middle" of a dream ...
The Death of the Human Spirit in "Harlem" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" Although Langston Hughes's "Harlem" and John Keats" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" were written about 130 years apart and they differ in their structure, they seem to share a similar underlying theme. ... In Hughes's extremely short poem, "Harlem", the poet asks "What happens to a dream deferred?" ... In "Harlem" the tone appeals to the human spirit. ... Although Hughes and Keats differ greatly in tone and imagery, they share many similarities in their dreams played out in their writing. ... While Hughes's dreams ...
Langston Hughes discusses dreams and what they could do in one of his poems, "Harlem." Hughes poem begins with "What happens to a dream deferred..." ... In addition, the questions give indications about Hughes' views on deferred dreams. "Harlem" is an open form poem. ... However, Hughes most likely agrees that deferred dreams are bad. ...
The play obviously centers on Troy as the main character, but every important character has at least one dream that does not completely work out for them, or are "deferred-. ... This clearly shows that a dream deferred can explode, although Troy avoids it at this point in the play. ... Another character with a "deferred dream- is Troy's first son. ... This dream has dried up, much like "Harlem- says a raisin in the sun will do. ... Although this is only a brief mention of a dream, it has the strongest connection to "Harlem-. ...
What happens to a dream deferred, a question given to us through "Harlem," a poem written by the great Poet Langston Hughes. ... The theme of being persistent to obtain your dream in the story has a correlation to the poetics of "Harlem.... What happens to that deferred dream is also revealed in the play. Walters "deferred" dream "dried up like a raisin in the sun.... We can take from both "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Harlem", All dreams can be fulfilled some are deferred due to an inconsistent strive to achieve them. ...
The Death of the Human Spirit in "Harlem" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" Although Langston Hughes's "Harlem" and John Keats" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" were written about 130 years apart and they differ in their structure, they seem to share a similar underlying theme. ... In Hughes's extremely short poem, "Harlem", the poet asks "What happens to a dream deferred?" ... In "Harlem" the tone appeals to the human spirit. ... Although Hughes and Keats differ greatly in tone and imagery, they share many similarities in their dreams played out in their writing. ... While Hughes's dreams ...
Therefore poetry awakens the mood of the Harlem Renaissance, through multiple poems such as Mother to Son or even Harlem (A dream deferred), which were presenting a style of living during the first half of the twentieth century. ... Johnson explained, Hughes developed a form of poetry were he could expressed himself without taking position, and allowing "him to compress a wide and complex range of images into one kaleidoscopic impression of life- (221) In the poem Harlem (A Dream Deferred) (1951) Langston Hughes writes about his souvenirs of life in Harlem during the Renaissance. In 1951 t...
