Langston Hughes' "Harlem" or "A Dream Deferred"

Last year, when writing a paper for my poetry writing class, I discovered a simple but beautiful piece of poetic genius called "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes. And again, this winter, I've rediscovered him in American Literature II. Only this time it is listed in the text under "Harlem." Which got me to thinking: Why are there two different titles for this one poem? What could the writer be inferring by having two titles? Does the title being "Harlem" change its meaning from what it is in "A Dream Deferred"?

These are questions that I have been thinking about very intensely. I think that the titles do change the meaning of the poem, and possibly even the universality of the poem. I will attempt to analyze the poem by using both titles, and explain what I believe the difference between the two pieces are.

The text of "Harlem" or "A Dream Deferred" reads:

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?

First, I will analyze the poem using the title "Harlem."

• In Harlem at the time of Hughes' writing of this poem, there were many dreams deferred by the prejudice that African-Americans were given countrywide.
• If analyzing the text in the historical context, then each question could be asking a very different question. For example, "Does it dry up // like a raisin in the sun? //" could very well be asking: "Why is the work so oppressive?"
• Other questions that the poem asks: "Why are we sick with no treatment? Why are we not given adequate nutrition?"
• The last question: "Or does it explode?" We discussed in class that this could be metaphorically the violence that oppression causes.

Now I will analyze the poem using the title "A Dream Deferred."

• Using this title gives a universality of time and space.
• Changes the tone of the poem from oppression to the overall synapsis of life--a series of dreams met and dreams deferred.
• The line "Maybe it just sags // like a heavy load. //" could be talking about the burden all dreams are on the back of the dreamer. It is like a heavy load of regret almost.
• The last line this way is just asking whether or not the dream dissipates.

I personally connect with the poem on a deeper level when it is "A Dream Deferred," because I see many dreams deferred in my life. And sometimes, they are "heavy loads" and sometimes they are "syrupy sweets."

What about you? With with title do you connect with more?