“As I Grew Older” Summary

“As I Grew Older” Themes

• 

  Blackness, Racism, and Aspiration

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “As I Grew Older”

• Lines 1-6

  It was a long time ago.
  I have almost forgotten my dream.
  But it was there then,
  In front of me,
  Bright like a sun,—
  My dream.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-10

  And then the wall rose,
  Rose slowly,
  Slowly,
  Between me and my dream.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-16

  Rose slowly, slowly,
  Dimming,
  Hiding,
  The light of my dream.
  Rose until it touched the sky,—
  The wall.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-23

  Shadow.
  I am black.
  I lie down in the shadow.
  No longer the light of my dream before me,
  Above me.
  Only the thick wall.
  Only the shadow.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 24-27

  My hands!
  My dark hands!
  Break through the wall!
  Find my dream!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 28-33

  Help me to shatter this darkness,
  To smash this night,
  To break this shadow
  Into a thousand lights of sun,
  Into a thousand whirling dreams
  Of sun!

  

  

  

  

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“As I Grew Older” Symbols

• 

  The Wall

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“As I Grew Older” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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“As I Grew Older” Vocabulary

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• Dimming
• Black
• Whirling

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “As I Grew Older”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“As I Grew Older” Speaker

“As I Grew Older” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “As I Grew Older”

More “As I Grew Older” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "As I Grew Older," complete with musical accompaniment.

  • The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short biography of Hughes, plus other Hughes poems, at Poets.org.

  • An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance — An introduction to the literary movement with which Hughes is closely associated.

  • A Hughes Video — Watch a short biographical film about Langston Hughes.

  • A Hughes Documentary — Watch a 2002 film about Hughes's life and times.

  • Hughes on "The Racial Mountain" — Read one of Hughes's most famous commentaries on race and literature, published the same year as The Weary Blues (1926).

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes

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  • Cross

  • Daybreak in Alabama

  • Democracy

  • Dreams

  • Dream Variations

  • Harlem

  • Homecoming

  • I Look at the World

  • I, Too

  • Let America Be America Again

  • Mother to Son

  • Night Funeral in Harlem

  • The Ballad of the Landlord

  • Theme for English B

  • The Negro Speaks of Rivers

  • The Weary Blues