Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again Analysis

Andrew has a bang-up interest in all aspects of poesy and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print.

Langston Hughes

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

"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 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 twenty-four hour period to twenty-four hour period existence makes the dream a brutal illusion. The poem explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for instance, and outlines the unique struggles of the poor who make up America, both blackness and white.

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

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

It was on a railroad train journey through Depression-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 go a noted if controversial figure in the world of blackness literature, post-obit his earlier piece of work in the then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Allow America Exist America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's verse - from the expansive work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Allow America Be America Once again

Let America be America again.

Let it exist the dream information technology used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a domicile where he himself is free.

Gyre to Go along

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(America never was America to me.)

Permit America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that slap-up potent land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That whatsoever man exist crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, permit my land be a state where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

Just opportunity is real, and life is costless,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There'due south never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are yous that mumbles in the night?

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

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed autonomously,

I am the Negro bearing slavery'south scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding but the same old stupid programme

Of canis familiaris eat dog, of mighty shell the weak.

I am the swain, full of forcefulness and promise,

Tangled in that ancient countless chain

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

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

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to yous 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.

Nevertheless I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old Globe while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream and then potent, so brave, and then truthful,

That fifty-fifty however its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That'southward made America the land it has become.

O, I'1000 the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

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

And Poland's plainly, and England'due south grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Non me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have 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 take nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's well-nigh dead today.

O, permit America be America again—

The state that never has been however—

And yet must be—the land where every man is gratis.

The land that's mine—the poor human being's, Indian's, Negro's,

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

We must take back our land over again,

America!

O, yes, I say it plainly,

America never was America to me,

And nonetheless I swear this oath—

America will be!

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 country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless patently—

All, all the stretch of these neat dark-green states—

And make America again!

Line-Past-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Once again"

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-constitute the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech, to liberty 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 live over again.

Lines 1 - 4

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

Note the mention of the pioneer, those offset seekers of freedom who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a home, against all the odds.

Line v

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

Lines half dozen - ix

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme blueprint, places stronger accent on the dream, the original vision people had for the United states, i of love and equality. There would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Annotation the dissimilarity of the linguistic communication used hither. There is the dream and love of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line 10

Some other 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 11 - fourteen

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing upwards of Liberty only for evidence, which is phoney patriotism. The upper-case letter L reinforces the idea that this could be 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. Cleaved bondage lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to brand it manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The proposition that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should be a natural given, office of the fabric that keeps usa all live, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - xvi

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

Farther Assay

Lines 17 - xviii

In italics for special reasons, these lines, two questions, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker's identity. These ii questions look back, questioning the speaker'southward negativity (in parentheses) and also look frontward.

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of not being able to see the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, vi lines which express yet some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks every bit and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Nonetheless, this voice besides expresses the commonage, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - 30

The 2d sextet focuses on the immature man, any immature homo no matter, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for turn a profit's sake, where greed is expert and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of capitalism encourages only selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

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

Workers go 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 first place. This is the vicious irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to go out 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 Erstwhile Europe, many from Africa, all set out for a new life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More than 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 signal. A simple all the same searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

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

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

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, but with more emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the heart, this fourth dimension more personal - ME - even so taking in many dissimilar types of people.

In these ix lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Liberty for all. It'due south well-nigh a call to ascension upward and take back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No thing the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - like leeches) need to start thinking once more almost ownership and rights to holding.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing upwardly of the speaker's whole take on the American Dream. A straight proclamation - the Dream will manifest at some fourth dimension. 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. There remains promise that the cherished platonic - America - can be made good again.

Literary Devices in Allow America Exist America Again

Let America Be America Once again is an 86 line poem split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, ii of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, ix liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

Allow'southward take a closer await 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 blueprint starts in a conventional way but gradually becomes more complex.

For example, take a look at the first vi stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. At that place is an alternate pattern in the first iii quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e ascendant:

be/free/me/me/Freedom/costless/me/free.

The full end rhymes leave the reader in no doubt most i of the principal themes of this verse form - freedom and me. A stiff pairing ensures a memorable bail.

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

• Nonetheless further downwards the line and so to speak, at that place are even so loose echoes of the familiar alternating design established at the beginning of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and get/free with lea/free.

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

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

Literary Device (two)

Anaphora

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

From the commencement stanza - Permit America/Allow it be/Permit it be - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics have likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, where ideas and images are built upwards over again and again.

Alliteration

In that location 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 beginning iv stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the flow of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Wait out for the 'open up' end lines which encourage the reader to not pause just go on straight into the next line.

For example:

Let information technology be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is fredue east.

and once again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient concatenation

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

Personification

That even even so its mighty daring sing

in every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

Sources

www.poets.org

Norton Anthology,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

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

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

walkerbeffele.blogspot.com

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