Image: Langston Hughes – Carl Van Vechten
Langston Hughes’ “Harlem”
Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” examines the potential effects of having to postpone dreams or goals. The result of such delay may present itself in numerous ways, and the speaker explores them in this poem through colorful imagery in five dramatic similes and one explosive metaphor.
Introduction with Text of “Harlem”
The title of Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” may be considered somewhat ironic. The Harlem Renaissance became a colorful, vibrant period of flourishing in literary, musical, visual, and other forms of art. Several civil rights activists, including the excellent poet/activist James Weldon Johnson, were active contributors to this flourishing movement.
The irony, however, rests in that fact that many dreams, especially of black American artists, were being realized as never before, yet, the poem engages in speculation about the events that may transpire if dreams are postponed, remaining unrealized.
Still, on the other hand, systemic racism in America was not eliminated until enactment of the Civil Right Act of 1964. Thus Hughes’ speaker was quite timely in speculation that much of the black population was still being subjected to unfavorable conditions, including having to postpone certain dreams of equality of opportunity.
Because this poem’s speaker makes no mention of anything referring to race or ethnicity, the poem’s “dream” could be any desired goal held by any member of any race or ethnic group.
The message of this poem can be applied to any “dream” or “goal” that would have to be postponed, especially if postponed by coercion or unfair competition. The poem’s universal message is what makes it a great poem.
This poem appears in Langston Hughes’ 1951 collection, Montage of a Dream Deferred. The theme of the poem explores the mental and emotional states that the human mind might undergo if forced to postpose or abandon one’s heartfelt dreams and life goals. The poem primarily employs similes but concludes with one explosive metaphor to convey its impact.
The speaker opens the poem questioning what happens when a dream has to be postponed. He moves on to make four further inquiries; he then provides a suggestion and finally concludes with a shocking, explosive question. The inquiries that employ the use of similes turn out to be rhetorical questions; answers to these questions are actually featured within the questions themselves.
This strategy leaves no doubt about the answers to those questions. They are yes/no questions, and the obvious answer is yes in all cases. As “yes or no” questions, they require no further elaboration. The speaker’s point of view on the issue is quite clear: he holds the notion that a dream postponed indefinitely can result in all sorts of damage, including death.
The similes— “like a raisin in the sun,” “like a sore,” “like rotten meat,” “like a syrupy sweet,” “like a heavy load”—form the questioning pattern, with the final simile, however, expressed as a suggestion. Then the metaphor in the conclusion bursts forth with, “or does it explode?“—the most volatile question of all—therefore it receives added italic emphasis.
No one wants to postpone a dream, that is, a goal, regardless of whether it is to buy a new phone or start that new career. But what happens to that dream if it does have to be put off for any reason? Maybe it just languishes in the back of the mind or maybe it causes the individual to behave in a destructive manner.
In roughly 50 words, the speaker has explored a human phenomenon that most, if not all human beings, have experienced in their time on earth. The degree of intensity to which each dream deferred has been subjected is the main theme of the poem. With colorful imagery presented through rhetorical questions, the speaker has created a memorable drama, focusing on a universal human condition.
Harlem
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?
Commentary on “Harlem”
Langston Hughes’ poem features several perfect rimes in “sun-run,” “meat-sweet,” “load-explode.” The poem employs images: “raisin in the sun,” “fester like a sore,” “stink like rotten meat.” Even the metaphor that contains no noun suggests the subliminal vision of an exploding bomb which includes all the five senses for which the imagery is employed.
First Movement: The Delaying
What happens to a dream deferred?
Most mature, well-adjusted, thinking human beings entertain dreams and goals that they strive to achieve. This poem full of questions begins with a question seeking to know what events might occur after a dream has been postponed: what might such a delay cause the dreamer to do?
Although it surely must be assumed that the “dream” referred to in this poem is one vital to human nature and dignity, such as the desire for individual freedom, personal security, and individual achievement, in reality, it does not matter what the dream is, because each person reacts differently to different circumstances.
Some human minds and hearts are more patient than others. What may set off a volatile reaction from one person may be well tolerated by another. Still, dreams and goals are so important to the life of the dreamer that they occupy the dreamer’s attention in the consciousness much of the time during the day and possibly even in sleep.
It is, therefore, little wonder that if the dreamer hits a roadblock that stalls his/her continuing on the path to fulfillment of a goal, s/he may become disturbed. The speaker in the poem is exploring a range of possible outcomes that may be experienced by differing personalities.
Second Movement: The Drying Up
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
After a dream or goal is allowed to “dry up like a raisin in the sun,” that dream or goal will lose its value. A raisin is a sweet, nutritious food but left out in the sun, it will harden and lose its flavor as well as its nutritional value. The life’s goal of a human being performs a vital role in making that person a successful, contributing member to the culture and society of the human race.
However, if an individual is put off over and over again, admonished that s/he simply has to wait for society’s laws and attitudes to change before s/he can start a business, or become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or artist, that individual is likely to wither away or “dry up,” particularly emotionally and mentally.
The speaker wishes to place into the consciousness of society that the notion of delaying the dreams of individuals will become an impediment to progress. Talent and ingenuity require nurturing. not being postponed.
Desire to flourish must be encouraged, not kept in the dark of indifference. The drying up of human talent and energy is a waste of human capital; thus the slogan “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” offers a useful claim as well as a clever advertisement for colleges.
The waste of that mind not only affects the individual, but it also affects the entire community and eventually the whole of society. If a country continues to denigrate its native talent, that country is bound to fail.
Third Movement: The Festering
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
The speaker then considers another issue that might arise from a delayed dream; instead of drying up, maybe it will run like a sore that has festered and become all pus infused. We all want our sores to dry up; we do not want them to fester and continue to run.
Restless dissatisfaction might occur if a dream festers and runs. The innocent dreamer might transform into a criminal, perpetrating criminal offenses against whom or what s/he believes to be standing in the way of his/her dreams. Again, the whole of society is lessened by such behavior.
Fourth Movement: The Stinking
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Rotten meat gives off a definite, unpleasant odor. A dream allowed to lie untended in the mind might decay and give off the stench of unfulfilled desires. The unpleasant odor comes from the dead dream, just as the stink spreads from rotten animal flesh.
The “rotten meat” simile is particularly powerful. The stench of decayed flesh remains nearly unbearable to the human nostrils. The speaker has grown particularly suspicious that deferred dreams can ever produce anything resembling a pleasant outcome.
Fifth Movement: The Crusting Over
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
The dried accumulation that forms on syrup or honey bottles left unused for quite some time presents as an unpleasant crust. It is the lack of use has caused that unpleasant accumulation.
The contents of the bottle will become unusable if left long enough, and so it becomes with dreams. Elderly folks often complain that they failed to pursue certain dreams when they were young, and now those dreams have become a bitter memory, a crusty accumulation at the top their bottle of life. The crusted over dreams may present themselves as emotions of hatred, doubt, anger, and despair.
Sixth Movement: The Sagging
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
This stanza does not pose a question; it offers a suggestion that perhaps the postponed dream just bends because of the “heavy load” of deferral. The dreamer has become lazy and lethargic, even clumsy, as s/he trudges along under the heavy load that has become a mighty burden.
The dream continues to weigh heavily on the mind of the dreamer who keeps on wondering what s/he might have accomplished, if given the opportunity. Thus from carrying the burden of doubt, the dreamer may become depressed even lacking the ability to be at all productive.
Seventh Movement: The Exploding
Or does it explode?
All of the possibilities heretofore mentioned in the similes and in the sagging heavy load suggestion of suffering a dream deferred are deficient, shoddy, even possibly life-threatening. While negative in their description, all of the earlier questions imply a certain level of tolerance.
The deferral of those dreams referred to in the similes have affected mostly the dreamer. But the question metaphorically expressed in the final line becomes literally and definitely explosively life-threatening, not only to the dreamer but to his/her surroundings.
The speaker asks, “does it explode?” Bombs explode—as well as anything in a container in which pressure has built up to the point that the container is no longer capable of expanding to accommodate that pressure. If the dreamers no longer harbor a shred of hope for their dreams, they may become such a container under pressure. They may figuratively become a human bomb by employing a destructive device that can maim and kill others in the person’s vicinity.
Miserable dreamers full of despair, grief, and hopelessness may engage in any number of dangerous, life-threatening acts, as they try to hold responsible those they consider to blame for their inability to realize their dreams and life goals.
Image: Portrait of Langston Hughes – Winold Reiss – National Portrait Gallery
Video: Langston Hughes: Leading Voice of the Harlem Renaissance | Biography
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