Similes and Metaphors

"Or does it explode?"

Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Deferred" contains retorical questions, similes, and a metaphor.  These figures of speech are used to describe what happens to a dream if it is not achieved. The retorical questions serve a purpose of creating images of decaying objects. The first five questions are similes that compare dreams to things that decay with time. For example, it compares a dream to rotten meat or a raisin dried up from the sun. Then, these similes are followed by the metaphor in the above quote.  The metaphor compares a dream to a bomb using metonomy.  Instead of using bomb, Hughes uses exploding to represent a bomb.  This comparison to a bomb emphasizes how quickly a dream can be taken away.  All the retorical questions create images that relate to the question what happens to a dream deferred.