Explication of "Harlem" by Langston Hughes

In Langston Hughes’s Harlem, Hughes wonders about what happens to a delayed dream. Hughes first wonders if the dream “dries up like a raisin in the sun” (2-3). Just like a grape turning into a raisin, Hughes thinks forgotten dreams lose their lively qualities and shrivel up. After a grape becomes a raisin, it can never be changed back. Hughes wonders if a deferred dream is the same way; once it’s gone, it can never be reclaimed.

            Hughes’s next idea is if the dream “festers like a sore” (4). Instead of the dream being forgotten, Hughes wonders if the dream constantly bothers the dreamer and is a source of constant pain, like a sore. Hughes offers other forms it may take to the dreamer, such as “rotten meat” (6) or a crusted over syrup. Hughes also wonders if the dream “sags like a heavy load” (9-10). This means that the dream would weigh down the dreamer as a constant reminder of how the dream was not accomplished. The deferred dream may become a burden. Hughes’s last question is if the dream explodes. This means the dream can no longer be contained, so eventually it comes back; ready to finally be accomplished after all that time.

            This poem uses many similes to describe the nature of the deferred dream. The poem also uses a rhyme scheme that adds to the flow of the poem. The separation of the stanzas also helps gives emphasis to the various parts of the poem. In the beginning, all the similes are in the same stanza. In the next stanza, Hughes brings up the idea that the dream is burdensome like a heavy load. Since this idea is separate, it is emphasized as the most important idea. The last line of the poem, “Or does it explode?” (11), is by itself and is italicized. This takes the newly placed emphasis away from the second stanza, showing that Hughes clearly thinks this is the best answer. However, it also shows Hughes’s curiously about the subject, since Hughes himself has wondered about his own dreams.