What do you think of Nike using Hughes’ dream?

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Bill Sullivan

What is the most important poetic device that the ad visualizes? Please read this famous poem and reflect on how the ad incorporates the poem into their message.   Form your opinion of this ad’s use of the poetic device in their overall creation. Click the comment thread and compose 4-6 sentences of Standard English for your response.

Harlem

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

What happens to a dream deferred?
      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?
      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.
      Or does it explode?

About Bill Sullivan

I am an English teacher working with great students at Suffield Academy. I also teach seniors in various project-based learning environments. Some of the #PBL topics included global issues, such as Pandemics, Climate Change, and Water; more recently I have asked students to research and identify topics important to our school community and their generation. We curate these topics with a #StudentCenteredPBL. For the past eleven years, I also created a driving question for a class to research a local history mystery and present their findings in a community program partnering with our local historical society. These topics encompass researching the lives of enslaved individuals who were contributors to the foundation of our community.
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7 Responses to What do you think of Nike using Hughes’ dream?

  1. 15wdb15wdb says:
    April 7, 2014 at 12:38 am

    This ad most strongly portrays imagery. Throughout the poem Hughes forces the reader to create an image of everything he says and after each line is read a new image is formed. In this ad it shows how even though something tragic can happen, it is up to the person to get up from it and start preparing to be better than they were before. Also, as the poem continues images that the reader is able to picture becomes worse and worse until in the end their is a positive note. Sonia Richards prepares throughout the ad and the end all of her hard work finally pays off.

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  2. Max Beitler says:
    April 9, 2014 at 12:35 am

    The Nike ad “A Dream Deferred” portrays imagery. It starts out showing Sanya Richards walking out of the gates, as the voice of an announcer talks about her struggle fighting Behcet’s Disease and her not being able to compete. The video shows Richards practicing and the emotions on the faces of fans that look up to her. Langston Hughes’ poem talks about a dream either fading away or “exploding”. Richards refuses to let her dream fade away as we can see by her hard work. Her hard work finally pays off, she beats her disease and is able to perform in Beijing. The last part of the video is pretty powerful, she chooses to live her life by the last line rather than the ones prior.

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  3. Luca Lorenzoni says:
    April 9, 2014 at 12:45 am

    Nike advertises their product by featuring Langston Hughes’ A Dream Deferred, a poem that echoes the essence of the Harlem Renaissance together with Sanya Richardson, a world famous track and field star as well as the epitome of determination and perseverance. The Nike ad highlights parallels between Richardson’s experiences and the poem, alluding to Richardson’s disappointing 2007 season when she failed to qualify for the 400m at the world Championships in Osaka due to illness – a dream deferred. However, in spite of failure, Sanya only worked harder and her dream – instead of “drying up”, “festering”, or “sagging like a heavy load” – exploded spectacularly as she returned to take home the gold in the Olympics in 2008 and 2012 as well as in the World Championships in 2009 and 2011. Langston Hughes’ words of wisdom illustrating the oppressed African American youth in the 1920s have become timeless, applicable to all who have experienced hardship and failure, striving to overcome.

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  4. therring5 says:
    April 9, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    The Nike ad uses the poetic device “metaphor” because a dream cannot dry up like a raisin in the sun. Using these metaphors creates a different thought process or picture in readers’ heads to give them a picture of what Langston is referring to. Imagery is really big in this poem as well. It makes you think about everything that Langston is talking about in a more deeper feeling towards the poem. Using these two poetic tools makes you feel what Langston is feeling.

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  5. maisiedaisy13 says:
    April 9, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    This Nike advertisement demonstrates the strength of athletes along with the delicacy of a poem. The poem includes two very definite devices, these are, imagery as well as similes. The reader is drawn in by each simile and creates an image of it within their own mind. This relates to modernism because every reader is going to have a somewhat different image in their head and interpret this poem differently. The end of the poem ends with a question which is an important part of modernism because it is challenging the reader to think deeper than they would on the norm.

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  6. 15lds says:
    April 11, 2014 at 1:39 am

    The Nike advertisement demonstrates the dreams coming true for multiple athletes around the world. It shows the viewers that your dreams are capable of coming true, if you really want them to. Perhaps the most important poetic device used would be similes. Langston uses the power of similes to show what happens when dreams die. Maybe dreams do dry up like the sun or sag like a heavy load but only if you let them. Dreams are what you make them out to be and Langston portrays this in his symbolic words by giving the reader a chance to interpret them for themselves.

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  7. Nick Miers says:
    April 11, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    The Nike advertisement demostrates dreams coming ture for young athletes around the world. Two very important poetic devices in the Nike ad are imagery and similes. Langston employs imagery beacuse he wants the reader to picture this athlete in a more deeper way. Similes are strongly emphasized by Langston because these important similes create a powerful image in the readers mind. Both these examples relate to modernism because it forces the reader to participate.

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