The History of Harlem

"Harlem"
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?
- Langston Hughes, 1951

Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.
Harlem
Harlem is a place in Manhattan, New York. It is a center of black community in United States. Basicly, the name “Harlem” came from a place in Netherland. Formerly, Harlem area was a Dutch Village and by time Black people developed there. But before 1950s, Harlem was like a bad place for Black. They got segregation(segregation between black and white), discrimination, etc. Government didn’t want to let them devepeloped. Through Harlem Renaissance, they made literature which show their feeling.
Poetry Analysis
Langston Hughes was a Harlem renaissance poet. During the time he wrote the poem “Harlem (A dream deferred)” blacks faced prejudice and segregation. Their dream was to acquire equal rights in their constitutional right to peruse happiness. Langston Hughes asks if the dreams of the black community are ignored and suppressed, do they dry up like a raisin left in the sun? If you leave a sore untreated it will fester. Their dream was untreated and was simply abandoned and neglected. The blacks dreams of equality were seen as a nuisance like the smell and odor or rotting meat. They were a heavy load and burden to society and sagged like a heavy load. When finally all the emotions and optimistic dreams were waiting and waiting for the one spark to explode.