4. Dream Deferred

"Dream deferred" contains five similes and one metaphor. Each simile refers to the dream having negative consequences because it is put off. However, the final metaphor questions that if the dream would it be positive or negative. At first, when I read I thought explode to mean blow up, or destruction or violence. However, explode can also mean to take hold or spread which could be inferred as the dream taking hold.


From the book, the reader learns that the author was a black American and from the time frame, I think it is fair to associate the dream with civil rights. Just reading the poem without this makes the dream unclear. If the topic is civil rights, this also coincides with the title, because by the 1900s the dream would have already been put off since the Civil War was in the 1860s. It would continue to be deferred as well and I think the author knew this fact. The goal of achieving civil rights had been negative for so long, as stated through the similes, and had burdened the people long enough. So the author questions the dream through the ending metaphor.