This poem analyzes what happens to a dream that is put off or delayed. It suggests that a deferred dream may wither away like a raisin drying in the sun, become infected like a festering sore, or spoil like rotten meat. Alternatively, a deferred dream could harden over like syrup or sag heavily under its own weight, or potentially explode from the pressure of being deferred.

1. Poem Analysis By Ryotaro Tsuji

2. What happens to a dream deferred?

3. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

4. Or fester like a sore and then run?

5. Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over– like a syrupy sweet?

6. Maybe it just sags like a heavy load

7. Or does it just explode?