Langston Hughes - Montage of a Dream Deferred

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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
Why should it be my loneliness,
Why should it be my song,
Why should it be my dream
deferred
overlong?

Langston Hughes
You talk like they
don't kick dreams
around downtown.

Langston Hughes
My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig And Be Dug
In Return.

Langston Hughes
The instructor said, Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you —
Then, it will be true.

Langston Hughes
Good evening, daddy
I know you've heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred

Langston Hughes
A certain amount
of nothing
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes
Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.

Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

Langston Hughes
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records — Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.

Langston Hughes
You are white —
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me —
although you're older — and white —
and somewhat more free.

Langston Hughes
When you turn the corner
And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left.

Langston Hughes
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Langston Hughes
There's a certain
amount of traveling
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes
What happens
to a dream deferred?
Daddy, ain't you heard?

Langston Hughes
I don't dare start thinking in the morning. I don't dare start thinking in the morning. If I thought thoughts in bed, Them thoughts would bust my head— So I don't dare start thinking in the morning.

Langston Hughes
Dream within a dream,
Our dream deferred.
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard?

Langston Hughes
Daddy, daddy, daddy,
All I want is you.
You can have me, baby —
but my lovin' days is through.
A certain amount
of impotence
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you.

Langston Hughes
Cheap little rhymes A cheap little tune Are sometimes as dangerous As a sliver of the moon.

Langston Hughes