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Harlem
In this poem, the speaker considers the various possible outcomes of a dream that has been delayed or put off, and he uses a series of similes followed by one, final metaphor. Because a metaphor...
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Harlem
The speaker of this poem is trying to answer the question: "What happens to a dream deferred?" (line 1). Deferred means delayed or withheld. Typically, if one defers something, one puts it off...
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Harlem
Throughout the poem, Langston Hughes is using comparisons to show what could happen if one defers or puts off one’s dreams. Hughes compares that deferred dream to a dried up “raisin in the...
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Harlem
The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, is one of many poems he wrote about fulfilling one's dreams. Written primarily for the African American community, this poem addresses the idea of what...
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Harlem
First, the speaker asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?" By this, he seems to be asking the fate of a dream that has been put off or postponed. The poem is sort of an exploration of all the...
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Harlem
Given that the last line contains the only metaphor in the poem -- all of the other comparisons that came before are similes -- and because metaphor is generally believed to be the strongest method...
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Langston Hughes
In the poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes uses five similes and one metaphor to describe what can happen to a dream when it is deferred. To "defer" means to put off or delay, and so all of the...
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Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes' poem “Harlem” looks at the adverse, and potentially even catastrophic, effects of the lack of opportunity in some parts of American society. Rhythm is the pattern created by...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes' short poem “Harlem,” also sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” is about the devastating effect of unrealized hopes and dreams. The poem starts with the question, “What...
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Harlem
To deconstruct this poem, I'll go stanza by stanza: What happens to a dream deferred? Hughes begins his poem with a question, which invites the reader into the conversation. The statement is...
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Harlem
Both Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" and Wendi Kaufman's short story "Helen on Eighty-sixth Street" concern lost dreams. Hughes asks us, "What happens to a dream deferred?," meaning a dream delayed...
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Langston Hughes
1. During the 1920s while the South maintained its Jim Crow Laws, massive numbers of black men, women, and children migrated to the North. In fact, in the 1920s nearly 200,000 African-Americans...
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Harlem
The significance of the title is that it harks back to the so-called Harlem Renaissance, a period of great cultural and intellectual activity among African-Americans, centred on Harlem in New York...
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Harlem
The poetry of Langston Hughes is lyrical with beautiful images that emphasize his theme of dreams. Two poems by Hughes that convey his thoughts about the black man’s ambitions are “Dream...
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Harlem
In the poem "Harlem," by Langston Hughes, the narrator begins the poem by pondering what happens to a dream that is denied. What happens to a dream deferred? Then, through a series of...
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Harlem
The images that are evoked in Hughes' poem are largely negative as they are the result of dreams being denied or deferred, put off and not realized. For this reason, I think that one can see how...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes was a literary giant in American poetry. Writing during the period called the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes focused most of his poetry toward the Black American in the mid twentieth...
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Harlem
These are three of my favorite poems. Each one uses poetic devices well. "Harlem" by Langston Hughes speaks of the plight of the black man prior to the Civil Rights movements. His entire poem is...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes poem "Harlem" written in 1951 spoke of the frustration of the black people before the Civil Rights movement which began later in the decade. Segregation ran rampant throughout the...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” (it appears under a number of other titles, too) was indeed written a couple of decades after the Harlem Renaissance had ended and quite rightly might be taken,...
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Harlem
Excellent question. Even though Hughes chose to set his poem twenty years earlier, during the Great Depression, it is clear that the situation faced by African-Americans in the early 1950s was...
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Harlem
In his short story, "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin writes of two brothers in the 1950s who have grown up in Harlem. As the older brother and Sonny ride in a cab, they pass through the "vivid,...
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Harlem
In Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem" the speaker is not necessarily a specific person—it could be Hughes, but we can also assume the speaker is any dreamer: however, with the poem's title, and the...
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Harlem
It is vitally important to remember that this poem is set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, a time of unprecedented want and poverty, which of course imapcted those who were looked down...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," refers to "dreams deferred" in the first line: What happens to a dream deferred? This would apply to the African-American because of the promises made and...
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Harlem
In Langston Hughes' poem entitled "Harlem," the "dream deferred" here describes the American Dream that was available to all white people, but not to the black man. Even when laws were changed to...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes' poem entitled, "Harlem," uses a couple of literary devices—including imagery often in the form of similes. However, "Harlem" does not have a set meter or rhyme scheme. Meter is...
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Harlem
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, and died on May 22, 1967. He was of "African American, European American and Native American descent." As well as an African-American poet...
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Harlem
Langston Hughes' poem "A dream deferred", also known in some editions as "Harlem" uses imagery and rhetorical questions in order to bring about meaning and purpose. The author is explaining what...
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Harlem
The idea of a "threat" is interesting. I do not think that each specific thinker would use the term, but the idea in each is present. For Hughes, the closing image of "Or does it explode," causes...
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Harlem
I wonder if you have perhaps become slightly confused between literary terms in this question. Unfortunately, this excellent poem by Langston Hughes contains no similes. However, it does contain...
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Harlem
I edited your question slightly for it to make more sense, as your previous question was slightly unclear. I hope I have still captured the essence of what you wanted to ask! This famous poem by...
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Harlem
In the eight lines enclosed within the frame (that is, between the first andnext-to-last lines) we get four possibilities: The Dream may “dry up,” “fester,”“crust and sugar over,” or...
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Harlem
The previous poster's comments are all very good, but as I understand harley08's original post, the question hasn't yet been answered. The final line of Langston Hughes' short poem (sometimes...
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Harlem
The main question of Langston Hughes' "Harlem" is "What happens to a dream deferred?" The question is asking, what happens when someone's dream is put off, delayed or postponed? As this is the...
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Harlem
The idea of “a dream deferred” is that the goals and ideals as defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution enunciate a great dream that has never been equally applied to...
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Harlem
This is perhaps Hughes’s best-known poem, principally because of the memorable third line, which was used by Lorraine Hansberry for her play A Raisin in the Sun in 1959. The similes in lines 3,...
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Harlem
In the eight lines enclosed within the frame (that is, between the first and next-to-last lines) we get four possibilities: The Dream may “dry up,” “fester,”“crust and sugar over,” or...
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Harlem
The list of questions that follow the main question in Langston Hughes' short poem "Harlem" may serve to make us, as the readers, think about the full range of possible reactions to the situation...
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Harlem
The poem, “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, contains several similes. Each of these figures of speech is designed to describe the frustration and impotence felt by one who is prevented from...
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Harlem
Tone is generally determined by several factors. In Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," tone can best be determined by his use of imagery. This work has a simple structure: it is a series of images...
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Harlem
This is an interesting question, since Langston Hughes's "Harlem" is generally noted for its imagery, not its alliteration or rhyme. The poem does contain those things, of course, and they do...
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Harlem
Hughes' fundamental question is one where there cannot be a direct and reductive answer. Simply put, one can only examine the possibilities and not derive a totalizing answer. This is why Hughes...
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Harlem
Yes, it is certainly significant that the questions remain unanswered and that the poem ends with a question and thus with no certainties for the future. The unanswered questions are functional to...
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Harlem
The dream that Hughes refers to represents the hopes for social equality with whites that African Americans had cherished for so long but that always been frustrated. The opening question of the...
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Harlem
In examining the questions posed, one can see that there are significant political implications to what is being offered. The fundamental question that can be taken from the poem is what happens...
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Harlem
In the mere act of raising questions, Hughes is expressing political and social values about what it means to be of color in America of the time period. At the time of Hughes' writing, being Black...
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Harlem
The images created in the poem help to illuminate world of denial and the inaction of dreams. The idea of the shriveled up raisin in the blistering sun helps to expose the reader to a mental...
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Harlem
Rewriting, or paraphrasing, is a useful exercise when considering the meaning and the structure of a poem. First, sometimes when we put a poem into our own words in prose we gain a clearer and...
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Harlem
The word choice -- or diction -- in Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem" seems to me to be very straightforward. The poem uses very few words -- maybe even just one, "syrupy" -- that are over two...