"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes

     In the poem "Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes, Hughes uses six distinct images throughout the poem to describe the dream.  He uses five similes and closes with one metaphor.  The five similes follow the same pattern of the possibilities of what a deferred dream may do.  The metaphor at the end has special emphasis.  This last image implies that this is what actually happens to deferred dreams.  Hughes' metaphor changes the attitude of the poem.  The metaphor, "Or does it explode," (Hughes) changes the attitude of the poem to a very active sense.  The italics put emphasis on the fact that the author has been festering something deep inside and feel that something needs to be done about it.  The use of the metaphor redirects the theme of the poem.  The other similes help lead up to the bomb that Hughes drops on the reader in the last line.