USE OF METAPHOR IN THE POEM "HARLEM" BY LANGSTON HUGHES

I intend to discuss the use of metaphor in the poem entitled "Harlem" by Langston Hughes. I believe that Hughes used this

figure of speech extensively in the poem and that it is used to better express meaning in the poem. I would like to believe

that the poem is making reference to the community of Harlem in New York. Apparently it is discussing what I would assume

is the dreamed or hoped for advancement of Harlem. It asks questions about what happens to a dream deffered or

postponed, to be realized at another time. I intend to show how metaphor is used in the poem by explaining the meaning

that I have drawn from the poem, line by line.

In the first five lines of the poem the author asks the question "what happens to a dream deferred?." He continues:

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or feser like a sore--
And then run?

In the first three lines I believe the metaphor refers to if the dream would simply fall apart and become mute, ineffective or

something that is no longer pursued. In lines four and five the author seems to ask if accomplishment of the dream would be

hoped for but action not taken and the dream simply die-away.

In lines six to eight it appears that the author uses metaphor to ask the question whether a dream deferred could be

likened to is pondered on by people with no action taken until it becomes an irritant and begins to seem like it is nothing

more than wishful thinking. This can be seen in the excerpt of these lines from the poem:

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over ---
like a syrupy sweet.

In lines nine and ten the author appears to use metaphor to ask whether a dream deferred could become like a huge

burden born by the persons "bearing" these dreams. According to the poem:

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

In line eleven the author apparenly uses metaphore to question whether the stress of the dream deferred is so much that

people who share the dream do anything to make the dream become a reality. This question is asked in the final line of the

poem:

Or does it explode?.

It is my contention that Hughes uses metaphore in the poem extensively to better impart meaning to almost every line in

the poem.