Question

What literary device or devices does Langston Hughes use in the poem? How does the device or devices contribute or emphasize the theme of the poem? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

• The literary devices used by Hughes in the poem are: simile and metaphor.
• The theme of the poem is, as title suggests, a dream that is denied or deferred.

Explanation:

"A Dream Deferred" or "Harlem" is the poem written by Langston Hughes in 1951. The poem consists of rhetorical devices such as simile, metaphor, and rhyme.

The title of the poem "Harlem" suggests the theme of the poem of the deferred dream of African Americans, who are kept from the dream of social equality and civil rights.

The rhetorical device, simile, that's been extensively used in the poem, helps in the development of this theme by comparing the deferred dreams to various objects.

In the first line, the deferred dream is compared to a dried raisin. This suggests that a dream deferred or denied does not evaporate or die but remains there, though in a dried state, lifeless.

In the second line, a deferred dream is compared to a festering sore. This means that a dream denied starts giving pain just like a sore that starts festering.

In the same manner, Hughes has used simile to compare and give a picture of how bad it looks like when a dream is denied. When a dream of social equality and civil rights is denied to African Americans.

The metaphor is used in the last line of the poem "Or does it explode." This use of metaphor develops the theme further that when a dream is continuously denied it explodes like a bomb. This suggests the anger of the dreamer whose dream is denied continuously that it explodes finally in various forms.