A Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes Analysis

In his poem “A Dream Deferred,” Langston Hughes utilizes vivid sensory imagery and similes to explore the various phases of a dream deferred. Before I wrote my stylistic imitation, one of my friends suggested I look carefully at the historical context surrounding this poem’s publication. This poem was written right before the Civil Rights Movement, during a time when racial tensions were high in the U.S. and this got me thinking about movements today. Recently, there has been an increased awareness of the rampant police brutality in America, and as I was contemplating the historical context of my poem today, I immediately thought of the #BlackLivesMatterMovement today, which is why I titled my imitation “Matter.” Hughes lived in a society where the dreams of Black people for true liberty and equality were constantly de-valued. Similarly, today, it is clear that racism and systematic oppression still exists. While black and brown people are being shot down by corrupt police officials, these same officials are being acquitted of their crimes, and our cries for justice are not answered. This is what I tried to draw …show more content…
Because this is such a short poem, I adhered to the original syntax. In the interest of preserving the rhythmic lilt of the original poem I tried my best to maintain the same rhyme scheme as Hughes, though I had to use a near rhyme for lines 3, and 5 with “shade” and “rake” and I repeated the word “ice” twice for lines 6 and 8. I also tried to maintain the same number of syllables per line as the original, but I had to take some liberties to keep my imitation unique and separable from “Harlem.” I did notice however, that Hughes’s poem comes to a neat end with five syllables per line in the last three lines and I did the same in my