This short poem is one of Hughes' most famous works. This is probably the most commonly taught Langston Hughes poem in schools today. Hughes wrote “Harlem” in 1951, and it addresses one of his most common themes: the limits of the American dream for African Americans. The poem has eleven short lines divided into four stanzas, and all but one of the lines are questions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the early 1950s, America was still racially segregated. African Americans carried the burden of the relic of slavery, which made them essentially second-class citizens in the eyes of the law, particularly in the South. Change was brewing, however. Hughes wrote "Harlem" just three years before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. Thus, Hughes was intimately aware of the challenges he faced as a black man in America, and the tone of his work reflects his complex experience: he can come across as sympathetic, enraged, hopeful, melancholic, or resigned. Hughes titled this poem "Harlem" after the New York neighborhood that became the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major creative explosion in music, literature, and art that took place is produced in the 1910s and 1920s. Many African American families viewed Harlem as a sanctuary from the frequent discrimination they faced in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, Harlem's glamor faded in the early 1930s, when the Great Depression took hold and left many African-American families who had prospered in Harlem once again poor. The speaker contemplates the fate of a “dream deferred.” It's not entirely clear who the speaker is – perhaps the poet, perhaps a professor, perhaps an undefined black man or woman. The question is important and it creates a feeling of silence. Hughes then uses striking analogies to evoke the image of a dream deferred. He imagines it drying up, becoming infected, stinking, crusting over, or, finally, exploding. All of these images, even if they are not outright violent, have a slightly dark tone. Each image is powerful enough to make the reader smell, feel and taste these abandoned dreams. According to Langston Hughes, an abandoned dream does not simply disappear, rather it undergoes an evolution, approaching a physical state of decadence. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay the speaker is not referring to a specific dream. Rather, he (or she) suggests that African Americans cannot dream or aspire to (be) great things because of the environment of oppression that surrounds them. Even if they dare to dream, their grand plans will stall for so long that they will eventually rot, or even explode...