Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Langston Hughes: Feb 1, 1902--May 22, 1967

Today is Langston Hughes' birthday:



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?



The second line--"like a raisin in the sun?"--provides the title for Lorraine Hansberry's highly acclaimed play, A Raisin in the Sun (1959), which depicts the experiences of a black family in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood when they receive a $10,000 insurance check and try to decide what to do with the legacy.

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