A Dream Deferred
Poem #3
Yim Tung Tong
Group 3
Read 211 “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes, “deferred” signifies delayed or postponed. Essentially, the title of this poem means a dream delayed or a dream being put on hold. There are many similes throughout the entire poem. The first simile states, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” which means that the dream altered its shape due to certain affects. A dream deferred shrivels up and turns dark because the sun has baked it. The emphasis on the sun is important because it stressed time by the sun’s movement. Like the raisin, the dream has been sitting out for a long time, it has transformed into something very different than it once was. The speaker uses raisin to imply the dream is “dried-up” and the shape is altered when they are being postponed. In contrast, if the speakers used a luscious bunch of grapes which means pleasingly rich and sweet taste of grapes, it would not be able to express what the speaker wanted to convey. The pleasingly rich and sweet taste of grapes would have a positive effect in the poem. However, the speaker uses a few similes to signify the negative effects when dreams are postponed. The second simile is, “Or fester like a sore” which can mean that the dream will slowly fade away. The speaker thinks of his own personal experience of sores. A sore builds up to an extent that it eventually will break out. This could be taken as a dream that just sits there but never receives the attention it needs and it will never go away. The dream will constantly sit there like an itch on your arm always making you think about it while doing everything else. When a sore or an itch that doesn’t heal properly, it will cause infection and irritation which indicates a dream deferred will cause infection and irritation. The second simile is, “Does it stink like rotten meat?” which to indicate that the dream was once fresh and new but soon became decayed and unwanted. A dream that is not realized in a timely fashion will decay because it rots and dies. He will not have the desire to pursue the dream anymore. The forth simile is, “Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?” The speaker using food to symbolize while the dream is on hold for the time being, he is wondering if dreams can be put away properly and be preserved even if they aren’t pursued anytime soon. Lack of use had formed the crust and it’s no longer useful which implies a dream that is forced to sit idle hardens into an unusable substance. The final simile is, “May it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?” implies the dreams remain in the mind like a heavy load. When these loads are extended, explosions are