Poetry Project Model English Class Ms. Johnson

Poem Selection A Dream Deferred By: Langston Hughes 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?

Poem Selection A Dream Deferred By: Langston Hughes 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?

Poem Analysis The poem A Dream Deferred is about dreams being postponed. The author talks about dreams as both positive and negative. Some dreams do come true for people, while others are delayed and never become a reality. Langston uses words like sun, run, dry, soar, explode, and sugar to create tone. Words like run, soar, and explode are actions given to the dreams, and allow for the tone to be playful and serious at the same time. By using these words, Langston’s attitude in the poem is both upbeat and serious. In the end the poet shows how dreams can be achieved or fallen. In the end we have to hold on to dreams and believe in them or they’ll disappear.

Poem Analysis The literary devices included in the poem, A Dream Deferred, are simile, metaphor, and rhyme. Similes are noted throughout the poem: “like a raisin in the sun,” “like a sore,” like rotten meat,” “like a syrupy sweet.” An example of a metaphor is in the last line of the stanza, “does it explode?” Rhyme is the third literary device used by the poet. The following words rhyme: sun-run, meat-sweet, load-explode. These devices help the poem create meaning for the poem. Langston offers a possibility of a negative affect. The first one “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”: a raisin is already dry, and as a raisin, it is a good thing, useful and healthy, but if a raisin is left in the sun to dry up, it becomes hard and impossible to eat; its value sucked out, it no longer serves its useful, healthy purpose.

Song Selection Keep on Dreaming Lyfe Jennings Look outside your window Tell me what you see Past all the flowers Beyond the trees Is it what you wanted? Your life to be Or is it what you Settle for Is it cause they laugh at you…

Song Language Keep on Dreaming Lyfe Jennings Look outside your window Tell me what you see Past all the flowers Beyond the trees Is it what you wanted? Your life to be Or is it what you Settle for Is it cause they laugh at you… Metaphor=Rumor on the streets; listen to your heart Repetition=keep on dreaming; keep on; don’t stop; maybe you Hyperbole=he den murdered his dreams

Song Analysis In the song “Keep on Dreaming,” the artist is pushing the human spirit to stay motivated and confident. We as individuals must “look outside the window…pass all the flowers…” and continue to fight for our dreams to become a success. Although roses are always beautiful, they also always have thorns that prick. Hence, love which is also beautiful will also prick and result in pain. The writer goes on to explain how painful love is by using a simile and metaphor in the fifth stanza. The writer respectively compares the pain to a knife and then states that the pain is a scar. I can still feel so much pain Like a knife that cuts you the wound heals but the scar, that scar remains Clearly, the use of figurative language helps the listeners understand the theme better. Of course any one can say that love hurts but to say that it cuts like a knife not only expresses the intensity of the pain but also conveys a very clear and strong message.

Song Analysis The literary devices included in the poem, ______(title) ________, are __(device #1)___, __(device #2)___, and __(device #3)___. __(device #1)___ is used ______(when)____. An example of __(device #2)___, is when “______(quotes)____.” __(device #3)___, is used in ______(line what)_______. These devices help the poem create ______(what)___. In addition, it adds to the meaning of the poem, _____(which is).