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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Harlem” begins with a question that anchors the rest of the poem. The speaker—implied to be a Black American, asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” (Line 1). It’s a concrete question containing layers of longing and uncertainty. The “dream deferred” can be interpreted as being one of any number of personal dreams, but those dreams all rely on an urgent and overarching need—the collective dream—for racial equality.
The phrasing of the question, like the poem, highlights how much possibility can be concentrated within a confined space. The word “happens,” which connotes a finite process, or the result of that process, evokes a slippery temporality—a continual present moving toward a definite future event. As such, it matches the energy of “deferred”—a word meaning a specific kind of delay, a withholding that comes as a result of a formal decision and, unlike "happens," implies no particular end time. The passive construction leaves readers wondering who has done this destructive and seemingly arbitrary deferring.
The poem’s tone is simultaneous carefully thoughtful and academic, and at the same time playful and ruefully funny. As the speaker unfolds the opening question, suggesting possible results of the deferment, the conjured images are visceral and simmering with anger.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes
African American Literature
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Black History Month Reads
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Books on Justice & Injustice
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Books on U.S. History
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Civil Rights & Jim Crow
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Equality
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Harlem Renaissance
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Nation & Nationalism
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School Book List Titles
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Short Poems
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The Future
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