Langston Hughes, Harlem
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Langston Hughes
Harlem (Literature To Go, p. 579)
Listen to “Harlem,” read by Langston Hughes.
Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
Considerations for Critical Thinking and Writing
first response. Could the question asked in this poem be raised by any individual or group whose dreams and aspirations are thwarted? Why or why not?
In some editions of Hughes’s poetry the title of this poem is “Dream Deferred.” How would this change affect your reading of the poem’s symbolic significance?
How might the final line be completed as a simile? What is the effect of the speaker not completing the simile? Why is this an especially useful strategy?