Composition 102 307
Professor Kratz
Questions on Langston Hughes’ “A Dream Deferred”
1. What’s the “plot” of the poem? What happens? Make sure you know the
meanings of all words used. When was it written? Are there any important words
the meanings of which may have changed over time? If so, look them up in the
OED.
2. What “dream” do you think Hughes is referring to? What does it mean to “defer”
a dream? Is the “dream” a symbol (in making this determination, refer to the
questions on p. 536)? If so, of what?
3. Who’s the speaker/narrator? Is it Hughes or a character (what support do you
have for your answer)? What implications does this narrative perspective have for
the poem?
4. The poem is made up of a series of metaphors: the deferred dream is compared to
a “raisin in the sun,” a “sore,” “rotten meant,” etc. What’s the metaphorical
significance of these comparisons (i.e. what might it mean to say a dream is like
“a raisin” or a “sore”)? Are raisins vital/full of life, or shriveled? Are sores easy to
forget, or do they insist on our attention?
5. What kind of images does Hughes use? Concrete or abstract? Involving growth or
decay? Why do you think he does this?
6. Hughes uses an interesting set of verbs: “dry,” “fester,” “stink,” “crust,” “sag,”
and “explode.” Are they all similar? If not, what’s important about the difference?
7. Is there a regular meter or rhyme scheme? Is the poem in closed or open form?
What does this contribute to the content of the poem? Remember that open form
is more “natural” (a la Whitman’s “When I heard the learn’d astronomer” (566)),
and that it is less “balanced” or “song-like”…
8. Is there a lot of rhyme, assonance, and alliteration? Does the poem sound
good/mellifluous or bad/cacophonous? How does the “sound match the sense”
(remembering Pope’s recommendation in “Sound and Sense”)?
9. The poem is a series of questions. Why do you think Hughes wrote the poem this
way? Why not just TELL the reader that a dream deferred is like a raisin in the
sun…etc.?
10. Are most of the lines end-stopped or enjambed? Why does Hughes end and begin
the lines as he does? Do the lines work with the grammar of Hughes’ writing, or
do they confuse the meaning of what he’s saying? Do the lines endings slow your
reading down, or emphasize words that would otherwise be lost in the middle of a
clause? Why?
11. Is there anything interesting in Hughes’ diction/word choice? Are the words he
uses difficult to understand, or straightforward? Are they abstract or concrete?
Why do you think Hughes chooses these kinds of words for this poem?
12. How does it contribute to your understanding to think of this poem in the context
of Hughes’ other poetry? Are there themes that Hughes returns to? Are there
images or symbols in this poem that get developed across other poems (e.g.
“Dream Deferred,” “Dream Variations,” and “Dream Boogie”)? What might these
connections within the body of Hughes’ work tell us about this poem? About
Hughes’ thinking?
13. How does it contribute to your understanding to think of this poem in the context
of the Harlem Renaissance? Of the early Civil Rights Movement? Of
class/economics?