Langston Hughes

Check the class calendar to get links to the biography video and audio connected with our lesson using Langston Hughes’ short story “Thank You, Ma’am.”

Here is the text of the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes.  You heard it read during the biography video.

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?

Mrs. Johnson <><