Harlem

poem by Hughes

Also known as: “Dream Deferred, A”

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Article History

Also called:: A Dream Deferred

Harlem, poem by Langston Hughes, published in 1951 as part of his Montage of a Dream Deferred, an extended poem cycle about life in Harlem. The 11-line poem, which begins:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?

considers the potential consequences of white society’s withholding of equal opportunity.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.