Introduction
This is a classic poem written by Langston Hughes, one of the top writers of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s.
Dream Deferred
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?
Extension
Pair this poem with another book (or play) on a similar subject. For example Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In the Sun or Margaree King Mitchell's Uncle Jed's Barbershop.
Module five focuses on multicultural poetry. Selected poems are as follows: