Let America Be America Again Theme

Andrew has a slap-up involvement 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 "Permit America Be America Again"

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

The speaker in the poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, simply could still exist.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day 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 striking, the poem does have an optimistic catastrophe and lights the way forward with promise.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult period in his life when he wrote this verse form. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, but couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poesy volume publication, most notably The Weary Dejection.

It was on a 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 become a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, following his earlier piece of work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness creative movement peaking in the 1920s.

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

Let America Exist America Once more

Let America be America again.

Permit information technology exist the dream it used to be.

Permit it exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a domicile where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Allow America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let information technology be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That whatsoever homo be crushed by ane to a higher place.

(Information technology never was America to me.)

O, let my land exist a country where Liberty

Is crowned with no faux patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air nosotros breathe.

(There'southward never been equality for me,

Nor liberty in this "homeland of the costless.")

Say, who are y'all 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 bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding simply the same quondam stupid program

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

I am the swain, full of strength and promise,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of turn a profit, power, gain, of catch the state!

Of grab the golden! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of piece 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 you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the human being who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Notwithstanding I'yard the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the One-time World while still a serf of kings,

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

That even still its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the state it has become.

O, I'grand 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'southward plain, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the gratuitous? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot downwards when we strike?

The millions who accept nothing 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 nosotros've hung,

The millions who accept nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost expressionless today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And however must be—the land where every man is free.

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

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and hurting,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream once more.

Sure, phone call me whatever ugly proper name you lot choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our country again,

America!

O, yes, I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

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 green 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-constitute the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech, 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 simply why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - 4

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

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

Line 5

Almost equally 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 vi - 9

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

Note the contrast of the linguistic communication used here. There is the dream and love of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, equally if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalization - once more 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 - xiv

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Liberty but for evidence, which is phoney patriotism. The capital Fifty 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 1 hand and the torch in the other. Cleaved bondage lie at her feet.

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

Lines xv - xvi

The rhyming couplet in parentheses once once more repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of accomplish, perhaps just has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the costless - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'state of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - xviii

In italics for special reasons, these lines, two 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 too await forwards.

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, half-dozen lines which express yet another attribute of the speaker, who at present speaks as and for, 1 of the oppressed, in the start person, I am. Yet, this vocalism besides expresses the commonage, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - 30

The 2nd sextet focuses on the beau, any immature human no matter, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for profit's sake, where greed is practiced and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face up of capitalism encourages only selfishness at whatsoever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Once more, apply of the repeated phrase I am brings home the message loud and articulate 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 ways merely hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, go mere numbers and are treated as 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 start place. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to get out their native lands, had this dream within, a dream of being truly free in a new country.

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

More than Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, some other strong question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this astute point. A elementary even so searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next x lines explore this notion of the complimentary. Merely the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It's 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 complimentary?

In that location are millions with piddling or nil. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for piddling - all that's left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, let America be America once more. This is a plea from the center, this time more 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. Liberty for all. It's almost a call to ascension up and accept dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

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

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines 80 - 86

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

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, three of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, at that place are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, ane octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the page the verse form looks more similar an extended vocal lyric, with quatrains followed by single lines and very short lines turning upwards in mid-stanza.

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

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assist reinforce meaning. In verse, there are uncomplicated rhyme schemes and in that location are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional fashion only gradually becomes more than complex.

For example, take a look at the first 6 stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating pattern in the beginning 3 quatrains, with the stiff full vowel rhyme e dominant:

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

The total end rhymes leave the reader in no dubiety about ane of the main themes of this verse form - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bail.

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

• However further downwardly the line so to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the commencement of the verse form.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and become/gratuitous with lea/costless.

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

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

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

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

From the commencement stanza - Allow America/Permit it be/Let information technology 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 spoken communication, where ideas and images are built up again and again.

Alliteration

There 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 first iv stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land exist 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. Look out for the 'open' end lines which encourage the reader to non interruption but get on straight into the side by side line.

For case:

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a habitation where he himself is fredue east.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless aboriginal concatenation

of turn a profit, ability, gain, of take hold of the land!

Personification

That fifty-fifty withal its mighty daring sing

in every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

Sources

www.poets.org

Norton Anthology,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

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

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

townsendslesintsend.blogspot.com

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

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