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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 happens...
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Harlem
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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Harlem
In the poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes creates a central metaphor surrounding a dream by comparing a dream to multiple images of death and destruction in order to ask what happens to a "dream...
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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 the...
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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
Langston Hughes' short poem "Harlem" is pretty much successful because of its imagery. Take away the imagery and you have nothing left aside from the opening question, "What happens to a dream...
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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 realizing...
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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
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
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
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
Langston Hughes employs many examples of figurative language in the poem. The overwhelming use of imagery, or mental pictures, populate the poem in helping the reader understand the implications...
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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
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
In "Harlem", Hughes uses free verse, a type of poetry that is clearly recognizable as poetic form, but does not hold to a consistent meter or rhyme. Although there is some rhyming, the rhyme...
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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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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
The poem about a "Dream Deferred, " or "Harlem," or "Montage of a Dream Deferred" represents Langston Hughes' exploration of the results of dreams that are set aside or dismissed. The poem...
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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 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...
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Harlem
Although Hughes does not specifically answer his question, "What happens to a dream deferred?" his following questions certainly cause his readers to think about the negative consequences of...
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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 sun,” to...
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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
Langston Hughes uses the elements of imagery and rhetorical question to foreshadow the destructive consequences of unfulfilled dreams. Particularly, the dream in question, and the subject of his...
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Harlem
The speaker in the poem holds an examining attitude towards the American Dream. The speaker in the poem offers different perspectives towards the dream in America. The theme of the poem is to...
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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 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
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, in...
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Harlem
Both the poems "Harlem" and "Dream Variations" deal with the struggle of African - Americans prior to and during the Civil Rights movement. "Dream Variations" depicts...
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Harlem
In the poem Harlem, Langston Hughes utilizes free verse with an irregular meter. This means that he stresses different syllables in each line and the length of the lines vary considerably. The...
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Harlem
In stanza one, the word "dry"—in the phrase "dry up"—is used as a verb. The implication here is that a dream deferred as good as disappears, as the water in a river would disappear if the river...
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Harlem
You can break the poem down line by line and see how characters and events play out just like the poem. Examine each key verb in the poem for its connotations, and you will find powerful parallels...
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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
The speaker in "Harlem" asserts that the realization of hopes and dreams is essential to a person's well-being. Through various similes, the reader is reminded of the harm that can come when dreams...
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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 his poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?," meaning a dream that is delayed from being fulfilled. He sets out to answer his question by comparing the delayed...
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Harlem
In Langston Hughes's famous poem "Harlem" (sometimes referred to as "Dream Deferred"), the speaker ponders what happens to a dream when it is delayed or put off. We don't know precisely what dream...
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Harlem
One primary level of similarity between both Hughes' poem and Dunbar's poem is that they speak for those who have no voice. This becomes a critical element in understanding their point of view....
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Harlem
For the speaker in this poem, the frustration of a dream deferred is like a wound. But is it an old wound that has scarred over, as the image of the dry raisin suggests. Or is it open and...
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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
Hughes has a consistent theme of freedom and equality in much of his poetry, and that theme is evident in these three poems. He speaks of dreams, and the common dream that he shares in these poems...
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Harlem
One central literary technique, also called a literary device, in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" is simile. A simile is a type of figurative language in which an author creates further meaning by...
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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
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
Your question isn't really clear, so I'm just shooting blind here, but I'll give it a shot. The Langston Hughes poem "Harlem," is well known and much referenced. The classic play, A Raisin in the...
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Harlem
Hughes uses several similes and one metaphor to masterful effect in this poem. The narrator first asks what happens to a dream deferred—a dream that has been put off or delayed or pushed away. He...
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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
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
When analyzing a poem, it is important to distinguish between the poet and the speaker; they are not the same person. Another term used for a poem’s “speaker” is “persona.” In “Harlem,” Langston...
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Harlem
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...