Questions, Questions.

"Or does it explode?"
("Dream Deferred" - Langston Hughes)

This poem only consists of rhetorical questions.  When I was first reading it, all I could think of was an annoying first grader who asks a millions questions.  However, these questions actually have a purpose.  These questions create images of things that slowly decay over time.  For example, a raisin that is left in the sun eventually will dry up.  Each image is connected to the question of how a dream is deferred.  The author is really asking:  How does a dream end in a person's life?  The slow-tempo images are juxtaposed with the question stated above.  This quote also contains an example of a metonymy.  The action of exploding is used to represent a bomb without directly mentioning the bomb.  This is effective because in the previous stanzas, imagery and similes are used to back up the reasoning.  The image of a bomb is powerful in and of itself to explain how a dream can die quickly and effect many people.  Rhetorical questions allow the reader to see the thought process of the speaker.  The last question is sudden and the opposite of the rest of the poem.  This really emphasizes that the speaker feels as if dreams can be taken from a person suddenly.