Compare and contrast "A Dream Deferred" to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have Dream" speech in regards to meaning and message.

The speaker in the poem laments about dreams not acted on. They are left in the background of the conscious to whither and die. Unrealized dreams have a shelf life like meat or eggs. They rot when they are not used. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have Dream" speech has a sense of urgency to it. He wants racial equlaity to happen. King knows that the idea of racial equlaity has to become something tangable if it is stay alive rather that rot like unrealized dreams in the poem.