Poetry Analysis: A Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes

Paul Laurence Dunbar showed the potential struggles of being African American in his poem “We Wear the Mask”, written fifty-five years prior to “Dream Deferred”. Both poems share similar tones and themes. “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes can serve as a sequel to “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar through displaying a cause and effect relationship which highlights the strength of neglect and disguises.

If this poem is read literally, it is incredibly repulsive, as it talks about eating tongues and hearts in a cannibalistic nature. When read figuratively, however, the poem is seemingly understandable and somewhat humorous. The speaker uses a tongue and a heart to characterize her sister’s and brother’s issues with the speaker. The “small bones and gristle” (3) of the tongue indicate a sharp speaker, capable of conceiving sarcastic retorts. This description sounds harsh, and causes the reader to feel uneasy.

The feeling of desertion can leave a person feeling gloomy and can cause extreme consequences. Separation and isolation can bring a person to a serious mental and physical presence that can lead to some scary images. The writers Grace Chua and F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporate the idea of desolation in their pieces to introduce the reader to the idea of loneliness and despair. Through The Great Gatsby and “(Love Song, With Two Goldfish)”, the writers use the main characters to show their love for each other but create the idea that when love isn’t present, it can mean a world of pain.

Thus, modernism was in a transient stage where writers were attempting make strives to move from the old forms of literature. In observation of Langston Hughes, he was considered a modernist that contributed a major part in the African American community. He was one the founders who incorporated jazz and poetry. This was during the period of the Harlem Renaissance when the African American culture was at its highest.

They love each other.” In “Predators” the author has an alliteration, “in the trust that many tales spun this tract long before I came.” The sound devices give more details and can help the poem flow better. On the contrary, the poems are either written in a simple diction or a sophisticated diction. “Predators” is written with a sophisticated diction, meaning it has many unfamiliar words and it is sometimes hard to understand.

This poem is written during the hardships of World War I which would gives a life threatening mood to a reader. Without that specific information a reader would clarify quotes such as “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere” (5)will help the reader acknowledge that chaos has appeared somehow. The idea of a chaotic society gives a understanding that something terrible has happened as the author expresses that a last hour is upon us with the quotation “ And what rough beast, its hour come round at last”(21) implies that a previous quote “The darkness drops again”(18) has foreshadowed the darkness has done its job by awakening Jesus once more for the Second

The style of which the story is being written is both descriptive and quite colorful, for example, “Um-hmm!... Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?”(Hughes pg.1) Hughes also introduces some specific languages and styles of literary devices such as repetition, hyperboles, and interjection. He also uses an exaggeration when trying to make a point, for example, “She said, ‘You a lie!’” ( Hughes pg.1 ).

For example, a famous poem by Langston Hughes, "Madam and the Minister", reflects the temperature and mood towards religion in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the African-American community since the abolition of slavery, as the expansion of communities in the North. Composers used poems written by African-American poets in their songs, and would implement the rhythms, harmonies and melodies of African-American music—such as blues, spirituals, and jazz—into their concert pieces.

She puts her hand among the “flames” to see if it burns. The poet’s urge to feel, even pain, is carried on throughout the poem. Plath uses a metaphor to describe the poppies as "little bloody skirts!". The use of the word "bloody" reflects her description of the colour of the poppies and also may be another reference to self-harm. She also may be referring to younger women in their short skirts, she is envious of them.

Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.

And then run” (4–5) or “stink like rotten meat” (6) or “crust and sugar over— / like a syrupy sweet” (7–8)? The images in these similes seem to say that if a dream is postponed, it rots or spoils or infects the dreamer. In each of the questions, the word choice is casual and dark: “dry up,” “fester,” and “stink”

When a dream is oppressed, and left to decay, it will either rot and subside or erupt with new life. The speaker opens by employing rhetorical questions to make the reader question what would happen to “a dream deferred”. These questions are somber suggestions, prompting the reader to consider how a dream may “dry up like a raisin in the sun?” or begin to “fester like a sore?” when postponed. There is a repetition of rhetorical questions and metaphors throughout the poem, suggesting many possibilities, and this pressures the reader to consider every outcome being presented.

They began to express this new found freedom during the 1920s, when almost 1 million African Americans left the South and migrated to New York, Chicago and other urban centers (Foner 796). A new term called the "New Negro" came into play, which in art meant the rejection of established stereotypes and a search for black values to put in their place (Foner 797). This established a quest led by writers which birthed the Harlem Renaissance to show the roots of the black experience (Foner 797). The Harlem Renaissance is where we see African Americans really express their freedom because Harlem contained a vibrant black cultural community that established links with New York 's artistic mainstream (Foner 796). For the first time Broadway presented a black actor in a serious role and African Americans were also seen in shows like Dixie to Broadway and Blackbirds (Foner 797).

Langston Hughes and America Langston Hughes, as renowned poet, a leader during the Harlem Renaissance, and a man of color, had written poetry during a particularly difficult time for people of color. Considered a founding father of Jazz Poetry, using various techniques, and styles of poetry to convey story in a rhythmic style. Many of Hughes’ poems focus heavily on America or the American dream. While reading “Let America be America again” it is evident that this poem is a description of the American Dream, “Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.”

Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King grew up in somewhat similar environments. Both, as african american men, had to deal with the everyday and very evident racism of an unequal society. Langston Hughes was raised by his Grandmother until her death. He went to live with his mother, “and they moved to several cities before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio,” (Biography.com Editors 2). Here, he went through the self-discovery period of teenage years, at Central High School, a predominantly white high school.