Analysis of: As I Grew Older by: Langston Hughes

A word that I think we should know is whirling. The deffinition is to rotate rapidly. The word rapidly was found in the sentence "Into a thousand whirling dreams". This poem is literally about a person growing older and their dreams change. The title, "As I Grew Older", is relevant because it tells how the speaker changes, the older he gets. The author uses similes like, "bright like a sun", to create layers of meaning. The author utilizes assonance as a sound device. For example, dream and me. The poem's form is free verse. The speaker of the poem could be Langston Hughes. This was indicated becasue he says "I" and could be looking back on his own life. The shift occurs when the speaker "breaks through the wall". I know this because before the speaker said it was dark, but now it is bright. The tone of this poem is hope, regret, and desire. Some clues of the tone are how the speaker regrets waiting and how he longs for his dreams. I interpreted the theme pretty literally. One interpretation it could be is, he is going through life and realizes how much harder it is to complete one's dreams the older one gets. He tells how, even though it took longer then expected, he was still able to break through the wall and achieve his dreams. The title, the wall, and the sun could all be subjects and symbols that helped me come to this conclusion.