Langston Hughes’s “As I Grew Older” reflects the regressive graph of the poet’s dreams as he grew older. The graph appeared to be inversely proportional to the progression of time.

Langston Hughes’s “As I Grew Older” represents not only his growth in stature, but the obstacles to his growth as an individual, and a member of society. The purpose of Life for a person is defined by his dream. He states that “It was a long time ago” that his dream existed. The lines that begin like a fairy tale point to a fairy tale existence–the aspiration of a black in a white-dominated society. The dream at the moment was right in front of him, an ‘in the face aspect’. It is likened to the sun .The comparison is apt, as the Sun stands for sunshine, brightness, the warmth of life and rays of hope. The light of the Sun also seemed to show him the way.

Subsequently, the poet brings in the metaphor of the Wall that grew when he was supposed to grown in its place. The wall referred to here is the wall of Apartheid, the invisible but sophisticated barrier. The wall is emblematic of boundaries,and barriers, and marginalization and segregation, as in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall’.…