Let America Be America Again Langston

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

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Let America Be America Over again"

"Allow America Be America Once again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining freedom, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is most on impossible.

The speaker in the poem 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 24-hour interval to day beingness makes the dream a cruel illusion. The poem explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for example, and outlines the unique struggles of the poor who make up America, both black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and hard hitting, the poem does accept an optimistic ending and lights the way forrad 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, merely couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poetry book publication, most notably The Weary Blues.

It was on a train journeying 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 figure in the earth of black literature, post-obit his earlier piece of work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black creative movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Exist America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes'due south poetry - from the expansive piece of work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before black poets such every bit Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Exist America Again

Let America be America over again.

Allow it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

Curl to Continue

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America exist the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Allow it exist that not bad strong land of dearest

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man exist crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, permit my land exist a land where Freedom

Is crowned with no simulated patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(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 dark?

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

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery'south scars.

I am the ruddy man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty trounce the weak.

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

Tangled in that ancient countless chain

Of profit, ability, gain, of grab the land!

Of take hold of the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of accept 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 machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Browbeaten even so today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the i who dreamt our basic dream

In the Sometime Earth while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, then brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it has get.

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

In search of what I meant to be my abode—

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

And Poland'south evidently, and England'south grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The gratuitous?

Who said the gratis? Non me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes nosotros've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have naught for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America once more—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every human being is free.

The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian'due south, Negro'due south,

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Certain, phone call me whatsoever ugly name y'all cull—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our land again,

America!

O, aye, I say information technology plain,

America never was America to me,

And still I swear this adjuration—

America volition be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

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

We, the people, must redeem

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

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these great light-green states—

And make America again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Over again"

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish the Dream. It is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to exist 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 i - 4

Alternating rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the first stanza, almost a song lyric. It's a direct call for the old America to be brought dorsum to life again, to be revived.

Note the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of liberty who with tremendous volition and attempt established themselves a habitation, against all the odds.

Line 5

Almost as an aside, but highly significant, the single 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 - nine

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the U.s.a., i of love and equality. There would be no feudal organization in place, no dictatorships - anybody would exist equal.

Notation the dissimilarity of the language used hither. There is the dream and love of those who would be equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - 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 - fourteen

The tertiary quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing upwards of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the thought that this could exist the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to go far manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should exist a natural given, part of the fabric that keeps usa all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines xv - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses in one case once again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of attain, perhaps just has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could exist based on the Star-Spangled Imprint lyrics 'land of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - eighteen

In italics for special reasons, these lines, 2 questions, represent a turning betoken in the poem; they are a different aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions expect back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and also look frontwards.

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 beginning of the sextets, six lines which limited yet some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, ane of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this vocalisation too expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the young man, any beau no matter, defenseless up in the industrial anarchy of turn a profit for profit'southward sake, where greed is good and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable confront of capitalism encourages just selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Once more, use of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling the message loud and clear in this octet: the system is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the servant, from the land to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream means only hunger and poverty.

Workers get de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated every bit if they are commodities or money.

Lines 39 - 50

The longest stanza in the verse form, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental freedoms in the get-go identify. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to exit their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly free in a new land.

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

More Line Past Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute signal. A simple however searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The side by side ten lines explore this notion of the gratis. Merely the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It's equally 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 zilch. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities annul with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for niggling - all that'due south left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, allow America exist America again. This is a plea from the heart, this time more than personal - ME - yet taking in many different types of people.

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Freedom for all. Information technology's almost a phone 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 liberty is pure and potent. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to start thinking again nearly ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines fourscore - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal organization, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. At that place remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - can exist made good once again.

Literary Devices in Allow America Be America Once again

Permit America Be America Once more is an 86 line poem split up into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, ii of which are couplets. In improver, there are four quatrains, two sextets, ane octet, a twelve liner, 10 liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

Permit's take a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce meaning. In poetry, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional mode merely gradually becomes more circuitous.

For example, accept a wait at the starting time 6 stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating design in the offset 3 quatrains, with the strong total vowel rhyme due east dominant:

be/complimentary/me/me/Liberty/free/me/free.

The full end rhymes leave the reader in no doubt about one of the main themes of this poem - liberty and me. A stiff pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the first 16 lines are straightforward enough. After this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• However further down the line and then to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating design established at the get-go of the poem.

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

soil/all with automobile/mean and become/costless with lea/free.

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

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/pelting/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader's listen and memory.

Literary Device (ii)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an important role in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a like effect to chanting, reinforcing meaning and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Permit America/Let information technology exist/Let it be - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics take likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political voice communication, where ideas and images are built up over again and again.

Ingemination

At that place are numerous examples of alliterative lines - when words with leading consonants are close together - which bring texture and interest to lines and a challenge to the reader.

In the commencement iv stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a land where Freedom/slavery's scars.

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the side by side, keeping the catamenia of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open' end lines which encourage the reader to not pause only become on straight into the next line.

For example:

Permit it exist the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a home where he himself is freeast.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless ancient concatenation

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

Personification

That even 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 Modernistic Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

nearmesee1958.blogspot.com

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

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