A Dream Deferred simply states that a dream is a goal in life, not just dreams experienced during sleep. Most people use their dreams as a way of setting future goals for themselves. Dreams can help to assist people in getting further in life because it becomes a personal accomplishment. The poem speaks about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. The poem leaves it up to you as a reader to decide what dream is being questioned. In the beginning of the poem the speaker uses a visual image to compare a dream deferred to a raisin. "Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?" The question is comparing a dream deferred to raisin in the sun. Like a raisin, a dream deferred shrivels up and turns dark because the sun has baked it. Like the raisin, the dream has been on hold for a long-time, it has transformed into something very different than it once was. The visual image can be used because of the detailed description being used. Next the poem ask if the dream festers like a sore what a nasty sight! This gruesome image imparts to the reader the lingering pain of a dream that waits to be realized, that waits to take place, that waits and waits, and then it runs. Yet in so sickening a sight, the notion of a “running sore” indirectly implies chance and opportunity. A sore that runs is a mess that heals, and in the same vein, a dream deferred will not be ignored, but will finally break forward. Does a dream deferred stink like rotten meat? Rotten meat, stinking like the