Welcome!

Welcome to all A level English Literature students at Highgate Wood! This blog will provide you with resources and information to support and help further your studies. We also hope that you will contribute your own thoughts and ideas to the blog as you develop your experiences of literature.

To begin, we invite your comments (click 'comments' link below) on the following poem by Langston Hughes in 1951:

Harlem: A Dream Deferred

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?


Not sure what to say? Consider...

• The time in which the poem was written (1951)
• The poet's ethnic heritage (Black American)
• What the imagery could represent
• Any other reactions you have

We look forward to your contributions to our new online community!