Comparing and contrasting poems term conventional

Langston Hughes, Distinction, Poem Examination, Comparative Research

Excerpt from Term Newspaper:

Dylan’s “The Occasions they are a Changing, ” Hughes’ “Harlem: A Dream Deferred, ” and Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” all investigate the designs of individual goals, plus the impact of society after these goals. Hughes’ composition provides an examination of how the deferment of life desired goals by contemporary society can result in superb destruction to both the person and society. Auden’s poem also looks at the loss of your life goals, on this occasion through the overarching control of a mechanized, soulless state and conformity. In contrast, Dylan’s words provide hope for the conclusion of dreams and desires through interpersonal change.

In the poem, “Harlem: A Dream Deferred, ” Langston Hughes investigates the theme of the dangerous impact of deferring dreams. In his first sentence, Hughes sets up a rhetorical question, “What occurs a dream deferred?, ” then sets about determining the effect of lifestyle goals which might be delayed or perhaps put off. Obviously, Hughes really wants to impart the idea that any existence goal that may be delayed provides a negative end result. Further, his inclusion from the word Harlem in the title is a sign that the poem reflects the destruction of life goals in the African-American community that may be symbolized by simply Harlem on its own. Hughes’ poem describes the result of existence goals that needs to be put off right up until society alterations, and regulations and institutions are ready to accept African-Americans. Before the time that an African-American’s goals can be satisfied, Hughes’ lists several substitute possibilities intended for the reactions of African-Americans. Dreams may well simply die and “dry up, ” they may rest dormant underneath the surface and “fester just like a sore, inch become putrid “like rotten meat” or perhaps become useless due to lack of use, and “crust and sugar more than. ” Possibly the most interesting of the alternatives is the intended violence in Hughes’ previous stanza, where he suggests that unfulfilled goals may “explode. inch Here, it might be interpreted that Hughes is definitely clearly caution larger society about the inherent threat in subjugating the hopes of an complete class of folks, who might “explode” with anger or perhaps frustration. Otherwise, Hughes can be speaking by using an individual level, and recommending that unfulfilled dreams can result in an individual “exploding” with lose hope, and committing an work of self-destruction.

W. L. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” provides a discreetly different thematic look at the worth of individual hopes and individuality than Hughes’ “Harlem: A Dream Deferred. ” “The Unknown Citizen” explores a society in which happiness and freedom have become lost through the overwhelming power over a bureaucratic control. In Austen’s composition, human dreams and desired goals are shed to the obnoxious and mechanized control of the state. Individuals are lowered to figures, and the unfamiliar citizen’s a lot more simply defined by simply his insufficient defiance and conformity. In Hughes’ poem the