An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 28. "Dream Deferred (Harle

An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 28. "Dream Deferred (Harlem)"


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Free verse doesn't have the regular beat of metrical poetry, but that doesn't mean that you should read it aloud like prose. You simply have more freedom to pick the words and phrases you want to emphsis. Now Khandi Alexander recites Harlem (Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes.

Dream Deferred (Harlem)
by Langston Hughes
Read by Khandi Alexander

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?