This poem is part of a book-long poem. It's usually called "A Dream Deferred" but sometimes called Harlem.
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?
Langston Hughes, “Harlem” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
https://vimeo.com/1303240
This is a very short biography of the poet.
https://vimeo.com/8257667
Dream Deferred
You Tube
Langston Hughes reads his poem--Dreams begins at :37.
