![Langston Hughes](/sites/default/files/2024-06/Langston%20Hughes.jpg)
Year Created: 1951
Categories of Documents:
Text of Document:
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?
Source: Poetry Foundation
Citation: Langston Hughes, "Harlem" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes.
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