Topic 2 (literary style): self-selected text analysis related to Literary Style Objectives 5 & 6

Literary Analysis of “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

This poem grabbed my attention for two reasons. However, both reasons carry equal responsibility in making the poem very impressive. First, it asks a question I had never even thought about; “what happens to a dream deferred.” All the time we have been studying and discussing “The Dream,” it had not occurred to me what effects “The Dream,” which is something just beyond reach, may have on the dreamers and the dream itself. Unlike the “American Dream” that consists of something tangible that an individual can grasp within his or her lifetime, the Dream must be deferred in hopes that “one day” it will manifest. So, “what happens to the dream deferred?” This question, posed by Langston Hughes, is both a striking and disturbing question because it is one that cannot be answered. Nor does the author try to answer it; he merely asks the question, but by doing so Hughes stirs within the reader a passion to disallow the Dream to “dry up,” “fester,” “stink,” or “crust.”

These vivid images bring me to the second reason “Harlem” grabbed my attention. The poem’s language creates descriptions that involve all five senses. The reader can see the dried up raisin, smell the rotten meat, and feel the heavy load; thus, making the poem come to life. It is as if Hughes has used a power tool to drill into the consciousness of readers forcing them to ask an unanswerable question. Through “Harlem,” Hughes expresses the minority voice and shares the minority experience (objective 6c) in such a way that it appeals to anyone who has ever had a “dream differed” causing readers from all racial and social classes to relate to the disappointment, anticipation, and uncertainty of the African American minority dream. 

Students could easily learn about minority cultures and the hardships historically faced by minorities in a sociology or cultural-studies course. These types of courses may even cover topics similar to “The Dream” vs “The American Dream,” but in order to make those cultures and hardships come to life for a person not born into such circumstances requires the “aesthetic standards of a literature course.” For the unanswerable question that it poses and the vivid language that it uses, this poem is a prime example of how a work of literature takes students beyond a mere study of a culture and opens the door to an understanding of and association with persons in that culture. In short, literature brings a unique human aspect to the study of minority cultures. [LF]

Topic 2: Hope in “Harlem”

            One of the readings that most undoubtedly stands out is “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. The poem is no more than eleven lines but it has greatly impacted the world of African American Literature. The simplicity of the poem is why it has been on the forefront of my mind throughout our coursework. It is nothing more than a series of questions, but it evokes such a sense of empowerment. When I first began reading the poem, I felt the sense of loss and deprivation present in the African American community, and the line “[m]aybe it just sags/ like a heavy load” made me almost lose all hope for the betterment of their world. I was not prepared for the ending line “[o]r does it explode?”. This line seems to come out of nowhere, but when I reread the poem, I noticed that Hughes had been preparing me for it all along. This is that pattern of The Dream. Hope is never lost; it is only “deferred” as the dream of the poem.

The poem is riddled with literary devices, such as similes. These similes aid in the complexity of the poem. The first is “a raisin in the sun”. The first sense of the sun is that it is something good. The sun is life force to all beings, and I have never before thought of it as a harbinger of destruction, but when looked at from an African American perspective, the sun is the signal of another day’s work for ruthless slave owners. The night (just as in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass) is the only time that the slaves had to themselves.

Also, the line “fester like a sore – [a]nd then run” seems to have a double meaning. Along with the surface meaning of a sore running with pus and blood, the poem can also be taken to me that once the slaves are pushed to their breaking point, they will run. There is only so much abuse and treatments that result in festering sores that they as a people will put up with. And similar to Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, many do run.

The final imagery of the poem is the most poignant. The dream can be envisioned as sagging “like a heavy load.” This evokes images of slaves on plantations being weighted down by bags of cotton, their master’s laundry, or their mistress’s children. The heavy load seems to be too much and the slave seems to be resigned under the weight of it. Then seemingly out of nowhere comes the explosion. The explosion that all of the slaves have been waiting for. Hope is not lost; it has only been waiting for the right moment to free the African American people. This hope is what kept them going decade after decade, watching their children bought and sold like cattle. There is hope that a better day will come and not only will they participate in it, but they will be the main force behind it.

This poem directly relates to The Dream. The Dream of African Americans is full of setbacks, which are obviously present in this poem, but there is the underlying need to persevere and rise again (or to explode). [EN]

Dreamer's Ticking Mind Bomb

            I was first introduced to the Langston Hughes poem Dream Variations several years ago when I had the pleasure of reading Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. The excerpt from the poem (which preceded the text) immediate struck me as very beautiful, though I cannot claim to have understood it until I had finished the novel. The poem Dream Variations is divided into two octaves with an interjectory statement between them. Though they are very similar in their imagery, they convey completely different sentiments.  It immediately struck me that both this poem, and his poem Harlem are very much comparable to jazz music. Jazz was founded based on the principal that music did not  have to be technically balanced and perfectly structured to be an artistic creation of great meaning and beauty. Although Hughes does not structure his poems with exact meter, and he does not balance them into equal stanzas, he is still successful in creating two great works of art. In many respects the inexact nature of his poetry is far more representative of reality.

            The title Dream Variations immediately correlates to musical terminology. The word variations is also used in varying expressions of the same musical theme. In many pieces of music a skillful composer is able to make broad even contradictory statements by writing his theme in a different tonal variation. This is the effect that Hughes creates in the poem. The imagery of the poem is consistent and varies from light (white) to dark (black), in each stanza the beginning passage refers to a desire for celebratory freedom. This freedom takes place in the light of day, and the sun is a major figure in each stanza of the poem. However, in the first poem the wishes to celebrate his freedom in "some place of the sun". It is fair to assume that he is referring to some place belonging to the whiteness of day. The mention of the day as "white" makes the imagery more specific about from whom he is seeking the freedom he celebrates. In each stanza the poem ends with the coming of night, which is a great comfort to the poet. It is fair to assume that the darkness is a comfort to the poet much as it is a comfort to the slaves. (as is mentioned in the slave narratives: Douglas receives visits from his mother only at night.) The difference in the tones of the dreams (stanzas) is subtle but carries great implications. In the first stanza he wishes to celebrate his freedom in a place belonging to someone else (the sun) and rests beneath a tree. Though he is comfortable beneath the tree, he is not fully integrated into the world until the darkness of night comes to comfort him. The variation features a celebration "in the face of the sun" with defiance. Then as the comforting darkness comes he does not rest "beneath a tall tree", but rather he is the tree; fully integrated into the scenery, a figment of nature, perfectly in his place. This poem depicts the dream as it exists apart from the American dream. The American dream assumes inclusion, assumes that the American has the rights of an American citizen. This is a dreamer yearning for comfort and a natural inclusion that he seems sure will come.

            Harlem is even less structured than Dream Variations.  It really has no specific form, and though it rhymes on occasion; overall it is very inexact. However, when read aloud even the lines that do not fit together with perfect meter have a certain musical quality, and though the verse is not balanced into mathematically perfect stanzas, it possess a musical phonetic quality when it is read aloud. (again very similar to jazz expression: modal music) The poem opens with a question, and is then followed by a grouping of similes that describe the possible course of being for a "dream deferred".  The similes propose a series of contrasting images. "A raisin in the sun" is different, darker, but still delicious, a "running", "festering", "sore" is probably infected, but metaphorically these contrasting images help to express the sentiments of the African American population about the dream of acceptance and equality that for them has been so long "deferred".  That it survives is the sweetness, that it may never come to be is the pain. He ends the poem with a dangling one line question that reads like an exclamation. I believe it does "explode". [PB]

Literary Style in “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes poem made a definite impression on me mostly due to the amazing expressiveness of its language and its clear harmonic rhythm.  Hughes makes the most of the poems effect by using language that would not typically be seen in a poem, exemplifying objective 6c and 6e.  He both uses his voice to share emotions and experiences that would not be felt by members of the general populace but also uses language and elements that exclusively of the black experience in the way the poem flows.  The flow and mood of the poem feels a lot like jazz music, and Langston Hughes uses this to express the emotion behind having a dream deferred.

It’s almost possible to hear the speaker singing the words to the poem as the music stops for the last line when Hughes asks “Or does it explode?” to a sudden trumpet burst.  The painful and often disgusting imagery used in the poem furthers this feeling with descriptions of the dream stinking “like rotten meat” which is then immediately contrasted in the next line by asking if it turns into “a sugary sweet.”  In this manner, the author appeals to our senses to allow us to connect more viscerally to the subject matter by almost being able to taste or smell the deferred dream as it is left unattended.

Hughes uses alliteration of the d sounds to give his poem an inquisitive sound, as well as the repetition of questions in the text.  The d sound can be seen in the first and second line when Hughes asks “what happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up…”  This shows a clear command of the language and an attempt to draw the reader into the flow and sonorous rhythm of “Harlem.” 

The dream is also used as a possible allusion to the American Dream, and suggesting that the black community has had their opportunity for that dream withheld.  This is s frontrunner for the concept of the dream that is spoken about by Martin Luther King in his most famous speech.  This dream also gives the essential foundation for our class discussion on the difference between the “Dream” and the “American Dream.” [BH]