Poem Summary: -
The poem ‘As I Grew Older’ by Langston Hughes is that of a Black man or woman living in the early to
mid-1900s in the United States, the racially discriminatory policies and feelings of everyday people stood
in the way of their “dreams.” The speaker chooses, partway through the poem, to break through the
“wall” and reach out to reattain his dreams. It’s through personal power and strength that marginalized
groups can step out of the shadow.
In the first stanza of ‘As I Grew Older,’ the speaker begins by looking back on the past and considering
what his “dream” used to look like. Although it was a long time ago, the speaker notes, and he has
“almost forgotten” what his dream was, he can remember that at the time, it was “bright like a sun.” The
fact that the speaker has “forgotten” his dream suggests that the reality he confronted in his day-to-day
life made his dream impossible. The life of freedom, happiness, and equality was not achieved and was so
out of the realm of possibilities that the speaker forgot it entirely.
In the second stanza, the speaker explains how his dreams had been forgotten by him. There is a shift in
tone in this stanza from the first stanza. The first stanza deals with the brightness of the speaker's dreams
which is contrasted with the bleakness of the "wall" (the obstacles which impede the speaker from
reaching his dreams). This stanza provides readers with an example of an extended metaphor. This is a
metaphor that lasts more than one or two lines, in this case, remaining influential throughout the entire
poem. The wall is a comparison, without using the words “like or “as,” that suggests that the real-world
racism and discrimination the speaker met throughout his life was a “wall.” It prevented him from
accessing, seeing, or even remembering his dreams. It consumed his life, boxing him into specific day-to-
day challenges.
The third stanza is perhaps the most memorable of the five stanza poem. Here, the poet only uses two
lines, one of which is only one word long. He writes, “Shadow. / I am black.” Here, if the reader was not
aware before, it becomes very clear that the “shadow” that the speaker is living in, cast by the wall and
blocking out his everyday dreams, is due to his race.
In the fourth stanza, the metaphor of the wall is taken further. The poet explicates how the shadow cast by
the wall over the speaker is so imposing that it obscures everything in the speaker's life. Here, the shadow
serves as a symbol for the racial discrimination that the poet and his fellow African-Americans had to
face in early-1900s USA.
In the fifth stanza, the first four lines of the poem all end with exclamation marks. Rather than dwell in
the darkness the wall casts or throw away his dreams entirely, the speaker’s vague memory of the bright
dreams he used to have inspires him to break through the wall and find his dreams in an address to
himself. He uses an example of an apostrophe, speaking to his hands, his “dark hands,” and telling them
to “break through the wall.” He is attempting to inspire himself and in the process, is inspiring other
African-American men and women in similar situations. In the following lines of the fifth stanza, the poet
continues to address his hands, asking them to help him “shadow the darkness “and break out of the
confines that the world has boxed him into. If he can “smash this night “and “break the shadow,” he
believes the prejudices inflicted upon him will shatter into a “thousand whirling dreams / Of sun,” and his
dream, and those of other men and women like him will return to prominence within their everyday lives.
Rather than contending with the cruelties and constraints of racial prejudice, the men and women of the
African American community will be able to pursue their dreams freely.
THEME OF THE POEM: -
The poem is about the negative effects of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. It is a comment on any
form of racial oppression where one cannot achieve their dreams, whether it is because of age, gender,
nationality, or religion. The poem conveys that we should believe in ourselves and stand up against the
unjust society and rise above any discrimination.
