EXAMPLE FOR APPLYING LITERARY TERMS TO ANALYSIS OF A POEM
Harlem (Dream Deferred)
By Langston Hughes
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?
Simile—comparisons between different things using “like” or “as” compares a dream deferred to a dried raisin, a sore, rotten meat, an overflowing fruit crisp, a heavy load, and an explosion. All these images have connotations of neglect and burden.
Consonance—while this is not used extensively through this poem, there is a repeated ‘s’ sound in “crust and sugar over--/like a syrupy sweet”. This causes the reader to slow down and consider the meaning of these words and links them together. In this case, they all are words associated with sweets, which contrasts with the previous image of rotten meat.
Rhyme—it provides continuity without following a regular pattern. End-line rhyme of “sun” and “run,” “meat” and “sweet,” and “load” and “explode.”
Diction—carefully chosen to convey a message that deferring a dream is bad. It may “fester,” “stink,” “sag,” or “explode.” All these are undesired effects.
Imagery—Hughes appeals to the senses, suggesting smell (“stink”), heft (“heavy load”), and texture (“dry” and “crust”) are part of the dream. This makes an abstract idea more concrete for the reader and provides physical associations for something normally intangible.