Poem versus Lyrics: Show "Respect" not "A Dream Deferred"
Both Aretha Franklin's song "Respect" and Langston Hughes' poem "A Dream Deferred" are eloquent statements for the need for people, specifically people of African-American origins, to receive respect from others for their accomplishments, their contribution to society and to others, and their needs as human beings. Hughes' poem is a poem of quiet rage, eventually boiling over into an imagined explosion. It uses poetic techniques, mainly a series of striking similes phrased as a series of questions to convey its meaning. In contrast, Franklin's song shows how music and a singer's delivery of a simple phrase can make a word into a song of power. Both Hughes and Franklin "sock it" to the reader or listener, one with poetic language, the other with colloquial language reinforced by powerful vocal technique. The medium of print allows for a more complex use of diction and vocabulary, as evidenced in Hughes' poem. A poet can assume the reader will take time to read and reflect over the verse. Unli
A reader of the Hughes poem comes up with a personal as well as a common image of dreams being deferred, and the listener of the Franklin song calls forth different personal images of the need to be respected, romantically and otherwise. Franklin seems to really believe that her false lover's kisses are sweet, in contrast-but that he should show her respect. Interestingly, both works about aspirations to be respected and valued use sweetness as a metaphor-Franklin's mister has kisses sweeter than honey. Every letter of the word is given a special nuance and meaning, just like every simile of the Hughes poem calls forth a different image of a dream being deferred-the final explosive image of rage, long bottled up, exploding forth. Does a dream, he wonders, dry up like a raisin in the sun, extinguished of life, or run (presumably a reference to how slaves ran, seeking freedom). It is, of course, the boisterous chorus of Franklin's song, and her delivery of the tune that gives her liberation song its fame and power. Every letter and every repetition of the same letter and the word gives a different nuance in the context of a performance. ke Franklin, who speaks in the voice of the 'I,' Hughes speaks in an objective voice, musing about the various fates of the deferred dreams of a collective people. Franklin's song, in contrast, begins with a direct address by her, as a woman, to her "mister" in ordinary, common-sense words, like a woman might speak to her man when he comes home. Without the advantage of performance and direct address, Hughes must add metaphorical weight to his use of sweetness with the force of language alone when discussing dreams: "Or crust and sugar over--/like a syrupy sweet?" he asks. This cliche becomes a kind of seductive come-on by Franklin, with her eloquent, lyrical phasing of her singing to the music. Spelling out the letters of R-E-S-P-C-T, with the punching chorus of "sock it to me," may not seem effective on paper, but in the rendition of the song, the sassy, thunderous demand of Franklin makes this effective. This image suggests that a dream deferred becomes, in effect, a pack of lies, encrusted in a false face to the world, like the lies an African-American might have to tell when he pretends the racism of society does not affect him at his job.
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