Reading Let America Be America Again

Andrew has a peachy interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject field. His poems are published online and in print.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Let America Exist America Once more"

"Let America Be America Again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining freedom, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is nigh on incommunicable.

The speaker in the verse form outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, but could still be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to mean solar day beingness makes the dream a barbarous illusion. The verse form explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for case, and outlines the unique struggles of the poor who make upwards America, both black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and hard hitting, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the way forward with hope.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult period in his life when he wrote this poem. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, simply couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse book publication, almost notably The Weary Blues.

Information technology was on a railroad train journey through Low-struck America in 1935 that inspired him to pen this classic plea for a resurgence of the true American spirit.

Publication followed in the Esquire magazine and Hughes went on to become a noted if controversial effigy in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's poetry - from the expansive piece of work of Whitman to street linguistic communication, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of earlier black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Permit America Exist America Over again

Let America be America again.

Allow information technology be the dream it used to be.

Allow it be the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a habitation where he himself is free.

Roll to Keep

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong state of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any human exist crushed by 1 above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, allow my state be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no fake patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is gratuitous,

Equality is in the air nosotros exhale.

(In that location's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the nighttime?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro begetting slavery'due south scars.

I am the cherry human being driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding simply the same old stupid program

Of domestic dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the immature man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the country!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the means of satisfying demand!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one'south own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the auto.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'chiliad the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Sometime World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so dauntless, so truthful,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's fabricated America the country it has become.

O, I'm the human who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the one who left night Ireland's shore,

And Poland'southward plain, and England'due south grassy lea,

And torn from Blackness Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the gratis? Not me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot downward when we strike?

The millions who take zilch for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have aught for our pay—

Except the dream that'south almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must exist—the land where every human being is costless.

The state that's mine—the poor human'due south, Indian's, Negro'south,

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Certain, call me any ugly proper name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live similar leeches on the people's lives,

Nosotros must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will exist!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster expiry,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the countless plainly—

All, all the stretch of these peachy greenish states—

And make America again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Again"

This whole verse form is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to alive again.

Lines 1 - 4

Alternate rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the first stanza, almost a song lyric. It'due south a directly phone call for the quondam America to be brought back to life again, to be revived.

Annotation the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of freedom who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a domicile, confronting all the odds.

Line 5

About as an aside, but highly significant, the unmarried line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America as an ideal just hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?

Lines 6 - 9

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger accent on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of love and equality. At that place would be no feudal organization in place, no dictatorships - everyone would exist equal.

Note the contrast of the language used here. There is the dream and love of those who would exist equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line ten

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vox - again making the point that this America hasn't existed for him, implying that he is far from the Dream. He is dubious to say the least.

Lines eleven - 14

The tertiary quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing up of Liberty merely for prove, which is phoney patriotism. The capital letter L reinforces the idea that this could be the Statue of Freedom, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Announcement of Independence in 1 hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to make information technology manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The proposition that equality could be in the air people exhale, means that equality should be a natural given, function of the fabric that keeps us all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines fifteen - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses one time again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of accomplish, peradventure simply has never existed. Same goes for liberty. (Homeland of the free - could exist based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'land of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

In italics for special reasons, these lines, 2 questions, correspond a turning betoken in the poem; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker'southward identity. These two questions await back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and as well wait forrard.

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of non existence able to see the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The starting time of the sextets, 6 lines which limited withal some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks every bit and for, one of the oppressed, in the showtime person, I am. Nonetheless, this voice also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

And note that all types of person are included: white, black, native American, the immigrant. All are bailiwick to the vicious competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the young man, any immature man no matter, caught up in the industrial anarchy of profit for profit'southward sake, where greed is adept and ability is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable confront of capitalism encourages only selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, use of the repeated phrase I am brings home the bulletin loud and clear in this octet: the organization is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the servant, from the country to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream means merely hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated as if they are commodities or coin.

Lines 39 - fifty

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental freedoms in the beginning identify. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, state of war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly gratuitous in a new country.

They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from Erstwhile Europe, many from Africa, all set out for a new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A elementary withal searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next ten lines explore this notion of the complimentary. But the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It'south every bit if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Just exactly who are the free?

There are millions with little or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the regime counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for little - all that'southward left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, let America exist America once more. This is a plea from the center, this time more personal - ME - withal taking in many different types of people.

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'south intention and demand. Freedom for all. It's almost a call to rise up and take back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of freedom is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to start thinking once more about ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker's whole accept on the American Dream. A direct declaration - the Dream will manifest at some time. It has to.

Lines 80 - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. At that place remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - tin be fabricated good again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again

Allow America Be America Over again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, three of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, i octet, a twelve liner, 10 liner, ix liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the page the poem looks more than like an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed by single lines and very short lines turning up in mid-stanza.

Let'southward take a closer expect at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce significant. In poetry, there are simple rhyme schemes and at that place are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional way but gradually becomes more complex.

For case, accept a look at the commencement 6 stanzas:

• abab - (b) - cdcd - (b) - bebe - (bb)

This is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to follow. There is an alternating pattern in the first three quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e dominant:

exist/free/me/me/Liberty/free/me/free.

The full end rhymes leave the reader in no dubiousness near one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the get-go 16 lines are straightforward enough. Subsequently this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• Yet further down the line so to speak, in that location are even so loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the get-go of the poem.

Each of the larger stanzas contains some grade of full rhyme, or total and slant rhyme:

soil/all with auto/mean and become/free with lea/gratis.

Slant rhyme tends to claiming the reader considering it is about to full rhyme but isn't full rhyme to the ear, every bit in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in total, they're a little bit out of harmony.

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, every bit in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/rain/again. The poet'southward aim with such full-bodied rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader's heed and memory.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an important role in this verse form and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a similar effect to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of energy.

From the beginning stanza - Let America/Allow it exist/Permit it be - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - in that location are repeats. Some critics take likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political voice communication, where ideas and images are congenital up once again and again.

Alliteration

There are numerous examples of alliterative lines - when words with leading consonants are shut together - which bring texture and involvement to lines and a claiming to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/state exist a land where Liberty/slavery's scars.

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the menstruum of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open' terminate lines which encourage the reader to not pause but go on straight into the next line.

For example:

Permit information technology exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient chain

of turn a profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Personification

That fifty-fifty yet its mighty daring sing

in every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

Sources

world wide web.poets.org

Norton Anthology,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

100 Essential Modern Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

whittmand1941.blogspot.com

Source: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Let-America-Be-America-Again-by-Langston-Hughes

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