"Keep your dreams alive..."

In Langston Hughes' poem "A Dream Deferred," the speaker uses one main figurative language type. Lines two through nine are written as five different similes. He compares "a dream deferred" to a raisin, a sore, meat, a sweet, and a load. Each of these provide a clear visual to the reader, allowing them to imagine an unreached dream being equal to these five things. Hughes furthers this visualization when he adds unfavorable words like "dry," "fester," "stink," "rotten," "crust," "sags," and "heavy." Each simile is therefore a negative one; this verifies in the reader's mind that a dream pushed aside can only cause horrible things. After using similes for the entire poem, Hughes sets aside the very last line and applies a metaphor. He asks, "or does it explode?" He draws special attention to this point by using these two techniques. It is with this metaphor that the most important comparison (in Hughes mind) is made. By using similes all the way up to the metaphor, Hughes allows the reader to become comfortable in their comparison and visualization abilities that are vital for this last line.