Langston Hughes' short poem "Harlem" is pretty much successful because of its imagery. Take away the imagery and you have nothing left aside from the opening question, "What happens to a dream deferred?". The poem has five or six images. The first five images are very clearly and concretely presented in more than five words and often in combination with a simile (the poem makes repeated use of comparisons using the word "like"): "a raisin in the sun," a festering "sore," "rotten meat," "a syrupy sweet," and "a heavy load." The final line of the poem -- "Or does it explode?" -- might be considered to include an image and a comparison, too, but these elements are much less developed in the final line than they are earlier in the poem.
On a side note, the first image is the most famous of the bunch and provided Lorraine Hansberry with a title for her widely read play on urban Afircan American life in the mid-20th century.
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