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?

Langston Hughes

Read this poem a few times and then answer the following questions.

1. What does a “dream deferred” mean?

2. Identify one simile in the poem.

3. Where is Harlem? Why do you think Hughes titled the poem Harlem?

4. What does each simile in the poem represent?

5. What do you think Hughes is trying to say through this poem?