Beyond the Words

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Beyond the Words

Imagery can be used in many different ways to help develop themes or ideas within poems or prose. Themes and ideas developed in poetry, by imagery, can allow the reader to think of things that they could have never possibly fathomed by themselves. A writer can make people change their idea on an issue or value that exist in their own lives with just the use of extremely powerful, moving words in a four-line stanza. Four lines may seem short, but when a reader sees a poem like Langston Hughes’s,“Harlem [Dream Deferred],” with only eleven lines, the length of a poem does not seem as important when the poem has such a strong, powerful theme. Hughes provides his readers with an idea of what might happen if a person does not try to persevere through hardships and postpones their dream. In Maya Angelou’s poem,“Still I Rise,” the idea of persevering through anything and having the courage to persevere shines through as a theme she tries relentlessly to get across to her readers. Both writers use imagery to present the themes within their poems and to help their readers establish their own opinions on each subject.

In “Harlem [Dream Deferred],” Hughes uses such literary devices as rhetorical questions, rhyme, imagery, and similes to develop the theme of his poem. In analyzing each rhetorical question that he presents, his readers begin to see a few of Hughes’s ideas on what might happen if people postpone or even forget their own dreams. Hughes writes on dreams, “Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?” (-), in which a raisin already is dried up and healthy for humans, but if the raisin is left out in the sun to dry up, the raisin becomes very hard and inedible. The value of the raisin has just been sucked out by the sun and becomes useless. Dreams and life goals are what make humans important and valuable to society, but if people’s dreams cannot be fulfilled for some reason, then their dreams must wait until they can be fulfilled. While people are waiting, their talents and desires are not being put to good use, therefore such talents and desires are wasted. Eventually, people just move on from their dreams and their talents just dry up like a raisin and become useless.

Hughes next metaphor states, “fester like a sore--/ And then run.” (4-5), trying to explain that if a dream festers like a sore the dream will become infected like a disease that could be called restlessness and dissatisfaction, which may cause a person to strike back at the reason that their dream became deferred. When the poem states, “Does it stink like rotten meat?” (6), Hughes shows how a dream can often seem put off for too long like rotted meat. If people do not realize their dreams as quick as possible, dreams may seem like they just decay and die.




Hughes ends his poem with a metaphor of an explosion, “Or does it explode?” (11). The metaphor puts the idea into his readers’ heads of bombs exploding and causing great destruction. If his readers thought that all the other possibilities of a deferred dream are bad, then, the last possibility of exploding is the worst. The person whose dream is deferred loses all hope, which might cause the explosion, and this could cause a person to commit either suicide or homicide. Hughes’s initial question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” (1), is answered by asking rhetorical questions, which leaves the initial question not completely answered. Hughes gives his readers a freedom of thinking and developing their own thoughts about why they should make their dreams a reality. Hughes makes his opinion clear that any important dream that has to be delayed can possibly have negative effects on a person’s life. He makes it clear that dreams are not just something a person experiences while they are asleep, but a dream is like a goal in life that people should try and accomplish. Hughes does not necessarily choose a dream that has been deferred, but he gives the choice of deciding what dream has been deferred to the reader.

Literary devices like imagery, rhetorical questions, repetition, and rhyme envelop Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise,” to help develop the theme without simply writing the main idea down on the paper and not allowing her readers to come up with their own opinion. Throughout the poem, Angelou uses imagery to describe herself and how she still rises in spite of obstacles that act against her. She refers to “dust” (4), “hopes springing high” (11), “air” (4), and “certainty of tides” (10), all as things that despite how much people try and beat them down, they will still not fail to rise every time. Angelou shows how strong her drive to be heard and will to make a difference in life is extremely important to her. As she writes in the first stanza, “You may write me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted lies,/ You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” (1-4), she believes that no matter how badly people talk and write about her, that she will overcome all the hatred and discrimination, and she will still be as strong as the woman she has always been and always will be in life. Angelou tries to get an idea across to her readers of how important perseverance and courage are to knowing and believing in yourself. Then, in the second stanza, Angelou lashes out with how strong and sure she is about herself by saying, “Does my sassiness upset you?/ Why are you beset with gloom?/ ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room.” (5-8). She knows that she is sassy and she doesn’t care if her sassiness shows through to anyone and everyone, and she is proud that she is sassy because she knows that she can never be trampled over by anyone. Angelou uses imagery of a rich oil tycoon when she lets her readers know that she feels rich already because she knows herself so well. She also uses the same imagery of richness when she writes, “‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines/ Diggin’ in my own back yard.” (1-0). Throughout the poem, Angelou also uses such words as “haughtiness” (1) and “sexiness” (5) to describe herself more to her readers to give them an even more accurate depiction of how she thinks of herself. Finally, at the end of her poem, Angelou repeats “I rise” seven times as her way of saying that she will never back down on her views and opinions and no matter how hard people try she will always be a strong, independent woman. People may wonder why she has become so dead set on being a strong person, but when she writes, “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,/ I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” (8-), her mission becomes clear. If she were to ever back down to all of the hatred and discrimination, she cannot progress in becoming equal to every man and woman of every race, therefore she would letting down her ancestors, who dreamt of freedom and equality for so long.

When both poems are initially read, Hughes’s may seem to give off a negative connotation, while Angelou’s seems very positive. But if the reader looks deeper into Hughes poem, it almost seems motivational because he tries to let the reader see how important following through with your dreams can truly be to your life. He may go to the extreme of showing his readers what could possible happen, but sometime the extreme must be shown in order to get his point across to the most stubborn of all people. Then, on the other hand, Angelou’s poem acts as a premonition of what a person might feel like if they do follow their dreams. She seems like she never regrets anything she does and that she knows her true self and seems very happy with everything about herself. In order for someone to be completely sure of themselves, they have to follow all their dreams because regrets just get in the way of finding yourself.

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. “Still I Rise.” Pockell 175-76.

Hughes, Langston. “Harlem [Dream Deferred].” Pockell 157.

Pockell, Leslie, ed. The 100 Best Poems of All Time. New York Warner Books, Inc., 001.

Thrall, William Flint, et al. A Handbook to Literature. New York Odyssey, 160.

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