Harlem (poem)

Content

The first line of "Harlem" asks "What happens to a dream deferred?" and the following ten lines work to answer the question. Hughes first asks four questions (such as "Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?"), presents a conjecture ("Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load.") and ends with a final question ("Or does it explode?").

Reception and analysis

Hughes's poems "Harlem", "Mother to Son", and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" were described in the Encyclopedia of African-American Writing as "anthems of black America". Scott Challener, professor of English and American Studies, deemed the poem "one of the most influential poems of the 20th century."

"Harlem" is referenced in El sueño, a short story by Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo.

"A dream deferred"

The poem's central question has been described as "one of American poetry’s most famous questions". Scott Challener considers Hughes's questions to be "urgent, embodied questions" that presents imagery of neglect while "provoking the senses". He notes that "Dreams here are not these overexposed things per se but are imagined to be like them and subject to the same forces—they are both visceral and vulnerable, and altogether too much. Dreams, like history, hurt. By implication, they demand care—and all the work that care entails." Challener argues that the final line "Or does it explode?" is abrupt and dramatic, which could be emblematic of race riots such as the Harlem riot of 1935 and Harlem riot of 1943, but might also refer to movements of population like the Great Migration and breaking down of misconceptions. The scholar N. Michelle Murray notes that the dream itself is never named.

Hughes uses the "dream deferred" motif in several of his works, such as "Boogie 1AM" and "Good Morning."

Legacy

The play A Raisin in the Sun was titled after the third line in Hughes's poem.