The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is written in the voice of a mother giving advice to her son. In it‚ she compares her life to a rough and hard-to-navigate stairway that his not been “no crystal stair‚” but she encourages him to keep going anyway (2‚ 20). Hughes gives her a very down-to-earth vocabulary to reinforce that she has had to work her way through life without the benefits of higher education‚ ease of profession‚ or even much help. Phrases like “Well‚ son‚ I’ll tell you‚” and
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Langston Hughes’s poem‚ “Dreams”‚ inspires the reader to pursue dreams. Hughes’s poem‚ emphasizes the importance of dreams and their ability to empower‚ strengthen‚ and embrace an individual’s life. Although it is a short poem‚ it holds a lot of inspiring thoughts. The simile used by Hughes’s to illustrate the meaning of the poem was peculiar and incredible. This poem is inspiring. The carefully chosen words to interpret make it even more fascinating. The meaning of the poem “Dreams” captures
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Langston Hughes was part of the Harlem Renaissance and was known as "the poet laureate of Harlem." His poems tell of the joys and miseries of the ordinary black man in America. In Hughes’ poem "Dream Deferred" he uses figures of speech‚ tone‚ and a unifying theme to show how black people’s dreams were delayed. Hughes uses similes and metaphors--figures of speech--to portray that often times their dreams never came true. He asks if they "dry up like a raisin in the sun‚" if they "fester like a sore
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In ’Harlem‚’ Langston Hughes is saying that dreams are an essential part of survival. He begins his poem by asking a question‚ “What happens to a dream deferred?” When you delay a dream‚ what becomes of it? Rather than fading away‚ Hughes compares dreams to food‚ a basic component of life. When dreams are put off‚ they become dried and shrunken like raisins‚ and they are not as ripe as the grapes they came from. Hughes is saying that dreams are an important part of life‚ and when they are ignored
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Langston Hughes’s poem” Harlem”‚ ask a great question‚ what happens to a dream deferred? We start out early in our lives with an endless amount of dreams for the future. Dreams for ourselves and dreams on a global scale. As children we dream of being a fireman‚ a police officer‚ teacher‚ or an astronaut. On a global scale we dream of peace and equality. What becomes of those dreams when they are postponed and overdue? Interpreting the first verse of the poem “does it dry up like a raisin
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society strive to reach a certain level of success and acceptance. It could thus be said that we likely have a dream we hope to achieve. In "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)"‚ Langston Hughes makes use of powerful sensory imagery‚ figures of speech‚ and rhyme to show the emotions created when a dream is deferred‚ or not achieved. Hughes uses rhetorical questions with similes to show his opinion of unfulfilled dreams. He suggests that deferred dreams‚ ¡°like a raisin in the sun¡¦like a sore¡¦ like rotten
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“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes `The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is a poem about persevering. As the title suggests‚ this poem is a monologue in which a mother is divulging her heartfelt advice to her son. The tone‚ therefore is loving‚ yet serious and determined. The mother in the poem is giving her son advice about how he should never give up. She tells him‚ in essence‚ to “Keep on Keeping on” throughout the hardships of life. She does this through the telling of her own struggles
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Literature and Composition II Langston Hughes and Bob Dylan Langston Hughes and Bob Dylan are two poets from different eras in modern American poetry. Although Bob Dylan is more characterized as a songwriter‚ I see much of his work as poetry. In this essay‚ I will discuss Hughes’ poem "Harlem [1]" and Dylan’s "Times They Are A-Changin"’ as commentaries on are culture‚ but from different backgrounds. Both poets use social protest to make their points. Langston is talking of times that were
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Harlem (or “A Dream Deferred”) by Langston Hughes has many similes and instances of personification. The poem’s first simile is a question about what happens to a dream that is put on hold: “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”. This comparison suggest that just as a raisin loses its physical substance‚ so too does a dream deferred lose its meaning. The “dream” that Hughes probably has in mind here is for African Americans gaining equal rights. The poem’s third simile occurs in lines 5 and 6:“Does
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In the poem “Dreams”‚ langston Hughes uses imagery to convey that life would be useless without dreams. First of all‚ Hughes uses metaphor in the first stanza to show how life would be meaningless without dreams. The narrator states that “Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly” (3-4). The metaphor that was used in this sentence‚ means that there is no point of the bird if it doesn’t have wings because the purpose of the is to fly. Then‚ the author compares life with a broken-winged bird that
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