Deferred
by Langston Hughes (excerpt)
Maybe now I can have that white enamel stove
I dreamed about when we first fell in love
eighteen years ago.
But you know,
rooming and everything
then kids,
cold-water flat and all that.
But now my daughter’s married
And my boy's most grown—
quit school to work--
and where we're moving
there ain't no stove—
Maybe I can buy that white enamel stove!
Me, I always did want to study French.
It don't make sense—
I'll never go to France,
but night schools teach French.
Now at last I've got a job
where I get off at five,
in time to wash and dress,
so si'l-vous plait, I'll study French!
Someday,
I'm gonna buy two new suits
at once!
All I want is
one more bottle of gin.
What has been deferred in the poem "Deferred" by Langston Hughes?
the African American dream
the emancipation of the enslaved
the civil rights movement
the abolitionist movement
