Everett Burns
Professor Pennington
English 1301-0010
M-Th 2:30-5:00
19 June 2012
Harlem
Harlem is about the pain and suffering of African-American people, with limited dreams in tough times. Racial strife was the main motivation for this poem, showing the tough barriers on moving ahead in life for this group of people. “Myers begins his poem with the words "Harlem was a promise/Of a better life, of a place where a man didn't/Have to know his place/Simply because he was/Black"; this cautious optimism informs the text.” "Harlem" Publishers Weekly 13 Jan. 1997: 76. Being of African-American descent and being from Harlem, it put Langston at his best for writing this poem.
We all dream about being a star, driving fancy cars, or taking trips around the world, but what happens when these dreams don’t come true? Do we give up or fight even harder to salvage our craving for something better. Did Langston Hughes believe there would ever be a Barack Obama? Hughes looked forward and sighed, "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?" Presbyterian Record. 134.10 (Nov. 2010): p25. Langston Hughes refers to these dreams as deferred which means postponed or delayed. And what dreams was he referring too? “The dream had always been perhaps the central motif in Hughes's poetry, and especially the dream of political and social empowerment for blacks.” "Montage of a Dream Deferred." The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews and Frances Smith Foster. , Trudier Harris New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center. “A dream deferred is how you can best describe Bill Clinton's eight years in Washington and health-care reform. A series of political missteps and sexual dalliances have brought us a lot of talk and little, if any, action.” Kirkner, Rich. "A Dream Deferred." Review of Optometry 15 Dec. 2000: 17.”
When I see the word “dry” it reminds me of being in the Houston heat or that cake I ate...