The poem Harlem by Langston Hughes reflects the post World War II mood of many African Americans. The Great Depression was over, the war was over, but for African Americans the dream, whatever particular form it took, was still being deferred. Whether one’s dream is as mundane as hitting the numbers or as noble as hoping to see one’s children reared properly, Langston Hughes takes them all seriously; he takes the deferral of each dream to heart.

      The whole poem (Harlem) is built in the structure of rhetoric. The speaker of the poem is black poet. Black people were given the dreams of equity and equality. But these dreams never came true. Despite legal, political and social consensus to abolish the apartheid, black people could never experience the indiscriminate society. In other worlds, their dream never came true. Blacks are promised dreams of equality, justice, freedom, indiscrimination, but not fulfilled. They are delayed, deferred and postponed. Only promissory note has been given but has never been brought into reality.
      Through this poem Langston Hughes examines the possible effects caused by the dream, when they are constantly deferred. When the dreams are constantly deferred, or when dreams are constantly postponed and delayed we are naturally cut between hope and hopelessness. The dreams remain in the mind like a heavy load. When these loads are extended, explosions are inevitable. The speaker rhetorically suggests that the dreams will explode and destroy all the limitations imposed upon them. After that the society of their dream will be born.
      When dream is postponed or differed or delayed, it brings frustration, it dries up like raisin in the sun but there is wet inside, likewise it stinks like rotten meat, it becomes fester like a sore and one day it will explode and cause larger social damages. The poem is in the form of a series of questions, a certain inhabitant of Harlem asks. The first image in the poem is “dream dries up like a raisin”. The simile likens the original dream to a grape, which is sound, juicy, green and fresh since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up.
      The next image in the poem “fester like” a sore and then run” conveys a sense of infection and pain. Comparing the dream to a sore of a body, the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of us, like longstanding injury that has gathered pus. The word “fester” connotes something decay and “run” literally refers to pus. From this view point of the speaker, this denotes to the pain that one has when one’s dream always defers. A postponed dream is like a painful injury that begins to be infected.
      The next image “Does it stink like rotten meat” intensified the sense of disgust. A dream deferred may also stink. The poet also hints at the disastrous results of ignoring or blocking people’s dreams. Summing up, ‘Harlem’ yields special insight into the African American condition on the gestation period of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Harlem - Poem by Langston Hughes

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?

      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?