Poem Analysis “As I Grew Older”, by Langston HughesTime passes, leaving behind memories but dreams never fade. They are immortalized in their souls. In the poem "As I Grew Older" by Langston Hughes, the character's dreams are immortalized from his childhood, although he faces numerous obstacles to achieve them. The poem talks about one's dream in life. In the search for his journey, the person encounters a huge number of challenges and barriers. The theme of this poem revolves around the strong will and difficulties needed to achieve one's goals. For teenagers, dreams seem to be their inspiration in life. They are stronger with the presence of dreams in their lives. The character first introduces his poem with the existence of his dreams, “It was a long time ago” (line 1) and “I almost forgot my dream” (line 2). This is typical in most adolescents. They come out with lots of dreams, slowly the dreams fade away as time passes and are forgotten due to other commitments and at some point in their life the dreams reappear and they become very enthusiastic about it. The poet uses "The Wall" to symbolize the barriers and difficulties that teenagers might have faced in achieving their dreams. 'Rose till you touch the sky', (line 11) the barriers faced by teenagers can sometimes reach the maximum point where only courage and determination are needed to resolve them. Physical barrier such as poverty, interpersonal barrier that revolves around the adolescent's individual mental states, as well as intrapersonal barrier that takes others as a means of control, and semantic barrier that includes the process of communication. All these four barriers play a very important role in... middle of paper... to maintain one's motivation in life. There is a saying that goes “there is no one who has become rich because he worked on a public holiday, and no one has become fat because he broke a fast”.Bibliography1. http:www.todays-woman.net/famous-poetsprint-828.html, accessed 29 October 2008, 17:30.2. Barba, Adriano. (2003). The language of literature. United States: Routledge.3. Dr. Leng, Andrew. (2002). Literature: reading, theatre, poetry and invisible characteristics. Singapore: Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd.4. Calvo, Clara and Jacques, Jean. (1998). The literature exercise book. United States: Routledge.5. Simpsom, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, volume xvll). Oxford: Clarendon Press.6. Stanford, Judith A. (2002). Responding to literature: short stories, poems, plays, and essays. New York: McGraw-Hill