The poem “Harlem” was written in 1951 by Langston Hughes. The poem was written as a part of the book-length sequence, Montage of a Dream Deferred. The poem is written after the inspiration from jazz music. Hughes intended the poem to be read as a single poem.

Montage of a Dream Deferred deals with the consciousness and lives of black people in Harlem. It also explores the continuous racial injustices in the Harlem community. The poem “Harlem” shows the harm that is caused when one’s dream of racial equality is delayed continuously. The poem, in the end, states that society must and will reckon with the dream of blacks. 

Langston Hughes is one of the most imminent and well-known poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Even though Langston Hughes was not from the lower class of African Americans, his poetry mostly deals with the problems that have plagued the lives of poor black people.

Most of his poems appear to be influenced by Blues which at that time were the most common means for poor people to express their anguish and pain. Besides poetry, Hughes has also written plays and prose works.

The works of Langston Hughes have been criticized by some African American writers of his time. “Harlem” deals with the lost dreams of millions of African Americans. The poem expresses the anguish and pain of how African Americans are deprived of becoming a part of the great American Dream.

Background of the Poem

Literary Context

Harlem Renaissance in literature, music, and art started in the 1910s and 1920s. The writers of the Harlem renaissance are mainly from the community in Harlem. They deal with the problems and everyday life experiences of black people in Harlem. Langston Hughes was one of the leading writers of the Harlem renaissance. 

The movement sought to explore the black experiences and put them in the center. They attempt to formulate a distinctly black aesthetic instead of following the norms and models of white.

Hughes published a seminal essay in 1926 titles as “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” In this essay, Hughes explores the challenges faced by the black artist where the white society exoticized and fetishized them on the one hand and silenced and dismissed on the other hand. Hughes asserted that black writers and artists much embrace their own culture for true beauty and creativity.

Hughes wrote that:

“If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter … If colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

Even though at the onset of the Great Depression, in the late 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance ended, it laid the foundations for the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Art Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Hughes wrote “Harlem” in 1951 with the values he laid in his essay that he wrote 30 years ago.

Even though the poem was written as a part of a long poem, the poem has inspired many well-known writers that come after Langston Hughes. The poem is the source of the title of the play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, written in 1959. The novel accounts for the experiences of black families living in the South Side of Chicago and their attempts to overcome poverty and segregation. The opening line of the poem inspired the famous speck of Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream.”

Even in the modern world, the poem “Harlem” exerts its relevance as it deals with ongoing issues such as police brutality and racism in the United States.

Historical Context

The historical context of the poem “Harlem” is linked with its literary context. The historical context of the poem is very important to understand the poem. The history of Harlem is involved in the historical context.

More than six million African Americans moved to cities in the Midwestern, northern, and western parts of the United States from the rural South during the Great Migration in the early twentieth century. There, the white supremacist violence and state-sectioned racism that includes segregation and redlining forced the black people to live in the poor section of large cities. There the poor black Americans faced unfair rents and severe unemployment.

Harlem was among such neighborhoods that turned out to a ghetto that entrapped people within the cycles of poverty. Such circumstances caused the Harlem riots in 1935 and 1943. Both of these riots were incurred by the little instances of violence against African Americans. For instance, the riot of 1943 started when a black soldier was shot and wounded by white police.

When the poem “Harlem” was written in 1951, World War II has ended, and the black people have been forced to fight for the U.S. military in order to defend America’s vision of equality and freedom and defeat fascism. However, the black soldiers fought in the segregated rant. And after the war, black Americans were still enduring legal and extralegal violence and racism.

After the U.S. Civil war, the dream of equal opportunities and racial equality had been put off and delayed consistently. The need for justice, equality, and the sense of deferral led to the Civil Rights Movement in 1964. In this sense, the poem “Harlem” can be seen as envisioning the “explosion” that changes the overall societal structure of the United States.

Harlem Summary

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

 like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

 The poem opens with the speaker asking questions from the reader/listeners, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Over here, the word “deferred” means postponed. The speaker then continues to give the possible reason for postponing the dream. One possible reason the speaker gives is that it can be deferred as the means of realizing the dream was lost.

In these lines, the speaker tries to express the pain of millions of African Americans whose dreams never become a reality, and with time, they have lost their meaning and relevance just like the water dries up in the eyes.

So the speaker again asks that question: do these unrealized dreams “dry up like a raisin in the sun?” or “decay like a sore and then run?” The speaker also proposes that it could “stink like rotten meat.”

The speaker says that the dream that cannot be realized or that ever becomes realized becomes very painful. The speaker proposes two possibilities that unrealized dreams can turn into. It either becomes painful as a sore that never dries and keeps on running, or it leaves behind the “crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?” They either rot and leave behind the stink in the memories or are remembered as a sweet pain.

Maybe it just sags

Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

In these lines, the speaker expresses other possibilities of the dream deferred. The speaker says that the burden of unrealized and unfulfilled may remain in the hearts of the people who have lost them. He asks what happens when the burden of unfulfilled dreams gets unbearable. He ends the poem by asking, that does it explode?

Themes in Harlem

The Cost of Social Injustice

The poem “Harlem is written in 1951, almost ten years before the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Langston Hughes also wrote about the consequences of the Harlem riots in 1935 and 1943. Both of the riots were ignited by the pervasive unemployment, segregation, and the brutality of the police in the black community.

In the poem, Langston Hughes deals with this time period of African American history. The very title of the poem “Harlem” places it in a historically immigrant and black neighborhood in the New York City of America. By “dream,” Hughes could mean any dream that African Americans have had. These dreams could be of a better life, racial equality, equal opportunities, and, more importantly, for being a part of the American Dream.

However, the poem expresses that these dreams are consistently postponed and put off, particularly by the policies that make Black Americans as second-class citizens. The poem suggests that though the dreams have been deferred or postponed by injustices, they do not simply disappear. Sooner or later, these dreams will be accounted for. The poem certainly suggests that there will be societal reckoning soon as the dreamers are claiming for what is rightfully theirs.

Initially, the speaker says that the idea of deferring the dream may cause the dream to become lessened, making it too unreachable that it eventually fades away. The poet suggests that the unfulfilled or “deferred dream” may “dry up” or “fester like a sore.” There is a possibility that it may “stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over/like a syrupy sweet.”

These images of deferred suggest that something is losing potency, spoiling, or is decaying outright. All of these things are exactly the product of a society full of the racism that may want in order to maintain their status quo. Such kinds of societies want the dreams of racial equality to lose their worth.

Moreover, the images and comparison in the poem make a profound idea that what it feels like to have dreams that cannot be attained only because of racial discrimination and injustices. All of these images illustrate the cost that black people faced in order to bear the injustices like the infected and painful “sore.”

Later in the novel, the speaker also wonders that these dreams “just sags / like a heavy load.” This suggests that the dream of racial equality always appears to be a burden on communities like Harlem, which continuously drags them down instead of uplifting them. 

However, the speaker also suggests a completely different outcome by asking that “Or does it explode?” The speaker brings the image of Harlem riots in 1935 and 1943 through the image of the explosion. Moreover, the explosion can also refer to the explosion of dreams. It gives a sense that the American Dream that many Americans want to realize could be exploded or appear to be false or hollow.

The final question, at the end of the poem, shifts the images of dream withering away, sagging, and festering to an image of the dream that is exploding.

The Individual and the Community

The poem “Harlem” can be read and interpreted in two ways. First of all, the deferred dream can be taken as a collective dream of a community. The dream can also be taken as an individual dream. The poem proposes that in the black community, the individual and the collective dreams are connected with each other. Therefore, it is not possible to realize the individual dream without the realization of the collective dream of equality.

The obvious can be taken as an account of the deferral of a collective dream. The very title of the poem “Harlem” frames the poem as being something about a whole community and its experiences. The deferred dream is the dream of the Harlem neighborhood and the group of people living there.

Throughout the poem, the dream is referred to as “it,” suggesting that the speaker is talking about the same dream in the whole poem, and there is only one dream that is continuously postponed. It is due to the title of the poem that the readers come to know that the dream described is the dream of the whole Harlem community.

However, the poem, at the same time, can be taken as the deferral dreams of the individual – the desires and hopes of a single person in the community. In the poem, the dream is compared to something that an individual can easily experience. For instance, a deferred dream is compared to a “raisin in the sun,” which is so small that only a person can notice it. Likewise, “sore” is something that only an individual can endure.

These comparisons in the poem, the dream can be a dream of a single person or many individual dreams, and the deferral of dreams depends on personal experiences.

The two readings of the poem are supported by the historical context in which the poem is written. The poem “Harlem” was written during the era of Jim Crow segregation in 1951. This time period is also known as the early period of the Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, the poem was written after World War II, when black Americans were forced to fight in the United States military within segregated ranks. 

In these circumstances, the collective dream of racial equality and the deferral of this dream were forcefully present in the black American community. 

Moreover, systematic racism in America also makes it impossible for the realization of individual dreams. For instance, a black family may want to buy their own house; it is impossible because of the racist policies of discriminatory lending practices.

Within this context, it is impossible for an individual to realize his dream without the realization of a larger collective dream of Civil rights and equality.

Harlem Analysis

Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” mirrors the post-World War II mood of millions of African Americans. When the poem was written, a period of the Great Depression was over; likewise, the great World War II was also over. However, the dream of African Americans was still deferred or postponed. Langston Hughes takes the dream very seriously, no matter if it is as ordinary as hitting the nail or as noble as being pessimistic about propelling the rearing of children.

Speaking broadly, the “dream” in the poem “Harlem” refers to the dream of African Americans for the right of liberty, right of life, and right of pursuit of happiness.” The dream refers to the dream of equality, liberty, and fraternity, for the right to own property, respect, dignity, and ethnic identity. 

In the poem, Langston Hughes tries to illuminate and explain the condition in America. The poem questions the aftermath of many deferred dreams.

First Stanza (line 1)

The poem “Harlem” opens with a large and open question that is extended and answered by the following sub-questions. The question is, “What happened to a dream deferred?” the deferred means postponed. Speaking broadly, the “dream” in the first line refers to the dream of African Americans for the right of liberty, right of life, and right of pursuit of happiness.”

The speaker is posing the question that since the dream has been postponed for a long time, what has happened to it? For instance, the period of the Great Depression is over, and the great World War II has also come to an end. What about the deferred dream that needs to be realized for centuries.

Stanza 2 (Lines 2-8)

The second stanza of the poem illustrates a series of questions in an attempt to answer the question “What happened to a deferred dream?” the speaker answers the question by imposing another question as “Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?” The image of a raisin in the sun carries a connotation that the dream was a living entity and now it has dried like a dry raisin. 

Besides this, the dying may also imply that the dream has shrunk or become minimal. Instead of looking at the objective qualities of the images, it is necessary that they must be analyzed in terms of the feeling of the speaker. The simile of dream drying like a raisin in the sun shows that at first, it was like a fresh grape, which is green and fresh. However, when it is neglected for a long time, it probably dries.

The next simile in the stanza is “sore.” For instance, the speaker says that “Or does it [deferred dream] fester like a sore and then run?” This imagery shows a sense of pain and infection. By comparing the dream to a sore on the body of the dreamer, the speaker proposes that unrealized and unfulfilled dreams turn onto the part of our body. It acts like an enduring injury that may cause infection and even death. The speaker tries to point out the pains when one dream is always deferred.

The next question that the speaker asks in order to answer the question asked in the First stanza is “Does it stink like rotten meat?” This question intensifies the disgust. The speaker suggests that a dream deferred for a long time may also stink just like the smell of rotten meat. By imposing this question in the poem, Langston Hughes points out the disastrous effects of avoiding and ignoring one’s dreams.

The fourth alternative that the speaker suggests is that the deferred dream will “crust and sugar over.” This means that it will make a covering layer over the wound to make it appear healed. The image of crust and sugar suggests that it becomes a sweet pain that will not kill the dreamer like sores and meat. However, it still connotes neglect, decay, and waste.

Stanza 3 (lines 9-10)

The third stanza of the poem opens with the only sentences that are not questions. In these lines, Langston Hughes suggests that the deferred dream may just “sag,” meaning it may bend with overload. The image of sag suggests that even avoiding dreams may lead to unforeseen horrors; however, the one certain outcome is that it will weigh one down both emotionally and physically.

Stanza 4 (Line 11)

The speaker is the representative of the African American people and employs this image to suggest that the unrealized and unfulfilled dream has been weighing on them. The larger consequences of it could be that it can explode. To emphasize the idea of mass destruction, Hughes italicized the last line, “Or does it explode?” Hughes suggests that the epidemic of frustration will eventually hurt everyone, not only the black community.

 The poem “Harlem” has a rhetorical structure. The speaker of the poem is black American. After the Civil War, black people were promised equality and equity. However, they never fulfill their promises. Black people would encounter a discriminating society on a daily basis. The dreams of blacks of a racially free society were never achieved. These dreams were deferred, delayed, and postponed.

Form

The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes has no set form as it is a free verse poem. The poem consists of 11 lines in four stanzas. Each stanza of the poem varies in length that adds a sense of impulsiveness to the poem. The poem has created its own form, which suggests that those whose dreams are deferred must find their own answers to what will happen to them now even if their answers explode the rules of the racially dominated white society.

The varying length of the stanza creates subtle forms that build towards the end of the poem. The first and last stanza of the poem consists of only one sentence that mirrors each other.

The formal elements of the poem allude to jazz and blues. Jazz and blues are the musical form of the black community and use recurring patterns and motifs. However, these patterns are disrupting at crucial points so as to express complicated feelings, dissonance, and juxtaposition. The poem “Harlem” creates a similar form and deals with the dissonant experience of an oppressed, deferred, and unfulfilled dream.

Meter

The poem “Harlem” has no meter and is a free verse poem. However, the poem has metrical elements and also uses the elements of rhythm throughout.

Speaker

The poem “Harlem” has a genderless and anonymous speaker. The poem does not have “I,” the first-person narrative, in the poem. The title of the poem “Harlem” gives awareness about what the actually is about?

The title of the poem proposes that the speaker may be someone who lives in the black neighborhood of Harlem. However, the question is posed with some kind of remoteness. For instance, the question “What happens to a dream deferred?” shows a kind of remoteness. The question would sound differently if the speaker says “my dreams” or “our dream.” The speaker of the poem appears to be with Harlem and, at the same time, outside it.  

Setting

The setting of the poem appears to be highly specific, and at the same time, open-ended. The title of the poem makes the poem set in one particular location, and that is Harlem. Harlem is the historically black neighborhood of black Americans in New York City. The political and social setting of the place was not stable at the time when the poem was written. 

The poem is written in 1951 during segregation. It is the period pre-Civil Rights Movement and the pre-Vote Rights act. This context changes the setting of the poem to be very specific.

The poem, at the same time, can be taken in an open-ended way. In the poem, Harlem is not mentioned as a neighborhood, and the images of the poem reflect the emotional and implicit setting. A sense of abandonment has been shown in the poem with the image of a raisin that has been dried up. Similarly, the image of sore also suggests abandonment and decay. Likewise, the image of syrupy sweet and rotten meat shows a lack of care and neglect.

The images can be taken as a kind of conveying the intolerable and frustrating feeling of living in the ongoing condition of poverty and injustice where a neighborhood is left uncared for and neglected. Such feelings can be shared by many people in different neighborhoods that are similar to Harlem. Thus, the setting of the poem suggests that Harlem is not a single place but a set of experiences that are shared by many people.

Literary Devices in the Poem

In order to bring richness and clarity to the texts, poets use literary devices. With the use of literary devices, texts become more appealing and meaningful. In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes employed various literary devices to emphasize the intended impact of the poem. Following are the literary devices used in the poem:

Imagery

The writer’s emotions, feelings, and ideas become apparent to the readers with the use of imagery. For example in the poem, the imagery employed is

 “like a raisin in the sun.”

“Does it stink like rotten meat.”

“Or does it explode.”

Simile

When two different objects are compared to one another to understand the meaning, the use of the word “like,” “as,” etc. is called a simile. For example, in the poem, imagery is employed as:

“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”,

“Does it stink like rotten meat.”

“like a syrupy sweet.”

In this, the deferred dreams are compared with the food items that are decaying.

Rhetorical Question                          

It is a question that contains the answer and is employed to make the concept clear. For example, in the poem following are the rhetorical questions:

“Or does it explode?”

 “Does it stink like rotten meat?”

Enjambment

Enjambment is a literary device employed when ideas or thought flows from one verse to another. The use of enjambment also creates a sense of tension, for instance,

“Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.”

Metaphor

When an implicit comparison is drawn between two objects or persons, it is called a metaphor. For example, in the poem “Harlem,” when the speaker says that “Or does it explode?” he compares the deferred dreams with bombs.

Assonance

The recurrence of vowel sounds in a row is known as assonance. For example, in this poem, the /e/ sound repeats in verse Do it stink like rotten meat.” Similarly, the sound /o/ repeats in verse “Or fester like a sore.”

Consonance

The recurrence of consonants sounds in a row is known as Consonance. For example, in this poem, the consonant /n/ sound repeats in verselike a raisin in the sun.”

Poetic Devices in the Poem

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem

Though literary devices and poetic devices are the same things, some of them are only used in poetry, not in prose. Following are some of the poetic devices used in this poem:

Stanza

The poetic form in which the poem is written is a stanza. The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes has no set form as it is a free verse poem. The poem consists of 11 lines in four stanzas. Each stanza of the poem varies in length that adds a sense of impulsiveness to the poem. 

The poem has created its own form, which suggests that those whose dreams are deferred must find their own answers to what will happen to them now even if their answers explode the rules of the racially dominated white society.

End Rhyme

In order to create a melodious stanza, poets use end rhyme. For example, in “Harlem,” the end rhymes are “sun/run” and “meat/sweet.”

Rhyming Scheme

The poem “Harlem” has no particular rhyming scheme. However, the first four lines of the poem follow ABCB rhyming scheme.

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