Langston Hughes Harlem 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? Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Whole Wide World An Anthology of Poems Long As You're Living: Collected Poems (pdf)
Harlem
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?
Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.