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?
When I read this poem, I thought about the meaning of the word "deferred." In this sense, I saw that a dream deferred was a dream that was set aside, delayed, or abandoned. This can be interpreted in many ways but I saw it as being abandoned. My favorite thing about this poem is the large amount of symbolism in each line. For example, when the author describes a dream deferred as a raisin in the sun, I saw this as meaning a raisin that dries up in the sun and loses its juices, and a dream deferred will "dry up" and lose its vitality. The next line has more of a powerful type of imagery and symbolism because it puts a darker image in the readers mind. This line symbolizes resentment growing, and shows a parallel between a wound worsening, like a sore, and inflamed emotions. The following line congers a sour image to the mind, and symbolizes how a dream can wither, rot, and begin to seem terrible, like rotten meat. The next line uses words like sugar, syrupy, and sweet to symbolize the false image that everything is all well, and after many lines depicting gruesome ideas, this line is like a compensation for the bad ideas that were thought previously. Then, when the dream sags like a heavy load, defeat is symbolized, and the sweet image before is realized to be dying. The dream sags because it has been deferred. So with the age, eventually, the dream will give up and die, or, the dreamer will grow old, give up old dreams, and die. In the end, the urge to re-realize the once forgotten or deferred dream becomes too strong, and explodes.
I really like this poem because it seems to linger in my mind, it makes me think about what dreams I have deferred. This poem helped me realize a dream deferred is never really gone, it has just gone into a coma, and we never know what we might have accomplished had we pursued them. At the best, the dream will be accomplished, and at the worst it will be deferred, and eventually fade into oblivion, never to return again.
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?
When I read this poem, I thought about the meaning of the word "deferred." In this sense, I saw that a dream deferred was a dream that was set aside, delayed, or abandoned. This can be interpreted in many ways but I saw it as being abandoned. My favorite thing about this poem is the large amount of symbolism in each line. For example, when the author describes a dream deferred as a raisin in the sun, I saw this as meaning a raisin that dries up in the sun and loses its juices, and a dream deferred will "dry up" and lose its vitality. The next line has more of a powerful type of imagery and symbolism because it puts a darker image in the readers mind. This line symbolizes resentment growing, and shows a parallel between a wound worsening, like a sore, and inflamed emotions. The following line congers a sour image to the mind, and symbolizes how a dream can wither, rot, and begin to seem terrible, like rotten meat. The next line uses words like sugar, syrupy, and sweet to symbolize the false image that everything is all well, and after many lines depicting gruesome ideas, this line is like a compensation for the bad ideas that were thought previously. Then, when the dream sags like a heavy load, defeat is symbolized, and the sweet image before is realized to be dying. The dream sags because it has been deferred. So with the age, eventually, the dream will give up and die, or, the dreamer will grow old, give up old dreams, and die. In the end, the urge to re-realize the once forgotten or deferred dream becomes too strong, and explodes.
I really like this poem because it seems to linger in my mind, it makes me think about what dreams I have deferred. This poem helped me realize a dream deferred is never really gone, it has just gone into a coma, and we never know what we might have accomplished had we pursued them. At the best, the dream will be accomplished, and at the worst it will be deferred, and eventually fade into oblivion, never to return again.