Is the speaker in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" going to give up on his dream?

In his poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?," meaning a dream that is delayed from being fulfilled. He sets out to answer his question by comparing the delayed dream to many images of death and destruction.Specifically, he uses similes to compare a delayed dream to a dried up raisin, which is a grape plucked from the life-sustaining vine and sucked by the sun of all of its life-sustaining...

In his poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?," meaning a dream that is delayed from being fulfilled. He sets out to answer his question by comparing the delayed dream to many images of death and destruction.

Specifically, he uses similes to compare a delayed dream to a dried up raisin, which is a grape plucked from the life-sustaining vine and sucked by the sun of all of its life-sustaining moisture. He further compares a delayed dream to a puss-secreting infected wound, and infections that cause serious illness, even death. He even compares the delayed dream to "rotten meat," which is meat that has gone uneaten for so long that it would now cause illness and death if consumed.

Yet, he ends by asking, "Or does it explode?" The image of an explosion is a very powerful image that stands in stark contrast to his other images of death and destruction. It takes a great deal of energy to create an explosion; it does not take a great deal of energy to shrivel a grape into a raisin, develop an infection in a wound, or to allow meat to go rotten. This image of energy that contrasts with images of death and destruction helps paint the picture that what really happens to a dream delayed is that it builds up so much energy within the dreamer that the dreamer finally explodes in a burst of energy needed to finally fulfill the dream. We saw the exact same burst of energy occur during the Civil Rights Movement; therefore, it is possible to conclude that the speaker of the poem is not going to give up on his dream but will instead finally release all of the pent-up energy needed to fulfill his dream.