Database

Enrique Ocon

DeVry University

Studies in Literature

Below is the poem I wrote inspired by Langston Hughes poem “A Dream Deferred.”

Deferred by who?

At first by me and you

Now by who?

People in white suits

No longer deferred

But confirmed expired

Out of their hands

And never into ours

Where has it gone?

I see the fiend has one

Why not we?

Langston Hughes poem “What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?     5

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.     10

Or does it explode?

I chose “Dream Deferred” a free verse poem by Langston Hughes as my motivation. The author incorporates rhyme in his poem and the theme to me is frustration. Hughes writes about dreams that are stagnate and wonders what happens to them if their idle to long. Every other ending word in each sentence of his poem rhymes and I like how they’re all related. For this reason I was intrigued to stick with his style and write about dreams that are deferred but not by you, or your spouse, or your family. My poem is not a comparison to Hughes poem but, a different version you could say. In my poem there’s frustration and questions just like in Hughes poem. In Hughes poem he’s worried about his dream although, it’s postponed, it’s still alive. In my poem their dream was taken and confirmed lifeless.

Langston Hughes poem was published in 1951, an era filled with frustration and fear for African-Americans. It was a time during which schools were segregated, poorly equipped, and college was for many a dream deferred but, not by their own doing. In 1951 seven black men were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a white women in Martinsville, VA. In the history of the state of Virginia, no white man had ever been sentenced to death for the same crime. Also in this year a class action lawsuit...