There is a indignant energy behind Hughes’s poems, “Harlem,” and “Dream Boogie.” The speakers in both poems displays tension between their inner turmoil and how they move through the world. That materializes differently in each poem: one is more violent and the other is more cleverly hidden. That said, the motivation is the same. Hughes portrays this through a combination of things: imagery, similes, format, and stylisation.
Throughout most of the poem, the tension in “Harlem” is self-contained. “A dream deferred” is a very personal and private thing, and can only be felt by the dreamer. This is reflected in some of the similies: the dried up raisin, the festering sore, the crusted over sweet, and the heavy load. All of these are only an inconvenience to the one experiencing it.
However, there is one simile that bleeds over into impacting the outer world: the rotten meat, of which it is impossible to escape the stench. Where the tension comes to a breaking point, is in the last line, “Or does it explode?” This line is written in italics, a strong emphasis on this break of a facade. This explosion is not defined. It could the explosion of anger, of self-destruction, or something else entirely. It’s unclear how this energy finds its way out of the speaker, but the nature of an explosion is violence.
The second poem, “Dream Boogie,” manifests this energy differently. Here, the trauma is converted into something more constructive, more concealed, and more presentable. It is converted into the form of performance, and music. The speaker is aware of the motivations behind this performance, referring to it as “The boogie-woogie rumble/Of a dream deffered[.]”
At the same time, the speaker also mocks those who do not realise these underlying motivations of performance. Like in “Harlem,” there are lines italicised, which emphasizes the action taking place in the physical world. It’s further emphasized by the way the stanzas are formatted. Stanzas alternate between narration and musical exclamation. It mimics a call and response, common in blues and jazz.
In summary, the two poems portray different reactions to “a dream deferred.” In “Harlem,” that reaction may be more violent and destructive. Whereas in “Dream Boogie,” the reaction is art in the form of dance and music. Hughes make no judgement on these two reactions, but simply acknowledges them both.