Let America Be America Again (1938)

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

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Let America Be America Again"

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

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

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day being makes the dream a savage 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 black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the fashion frontwards with hope.

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 poetry 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 truthful American spirit.

Publication followed in the Esquire magazine and Hughes went on to go a noted if controversial effigy in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the and so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic motion 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 linguistic communication, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before blackness poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Again

Permit America be America again.

Allow it exist the dream information technology used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Permit it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed past one in a higher place.

(It never was America to me.)

O, allow my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you lot 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'south scars.

I am the cherry human driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same onetime stupid plan

Of dog eat domestic dog, of mighty beat out the weak.

I am the immature man, total of force and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

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

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one'southward 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 still today despite the dream.

Browbeaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the ane who dreamt our basic dream

In the Erstwhile World while still a serf of kings,

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

That even withal its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That'south made America the country it has become.

O, I'k the homo who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my dwelling—

For I'thousand the ane who left dark Republic of ireland'due south shore,

And Poland's evidently, and England'southward grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The gratuitous?

Who said the free? Not 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 nosotros'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 goose egg for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, permit America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

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

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose organized religion and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream again.

Sure, telephone call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

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

We must have back our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology patently,

America never was America to me,

And notwithstanding I swear this adjuration—

America volition exist!

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 country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless evidently—

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 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 spoken communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some night times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines one - four

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

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

Line v

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

Lines 6 - 9

The 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of love and equality. In that location would be no feudal system in identify, no dictatorships - anybody would exist equal.

Note the contrast of the language used here. In that location is the dream and love of those who would exist equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line x

Some other line in parentheses, equally if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalization - 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 - 14

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upwards of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital 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. Broken chains lie at her feet.

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

Lines xv - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses once again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, perchance just has never existed. Aforementioned goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'land of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

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

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, six lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks equally and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Notwithstanding, this voice besides expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - thirty

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

Lines 31 - 38

Once more, use of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling house the message loud and articulate in this octet: the organisation 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 but hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, become 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 commencement place. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of beingness truly free in a new country.

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, 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 simple yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

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

There are millions with fiddling or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation bundled, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for piffling - all that'due south left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the heart, this time more personal - ME - however taking in many unlike 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 phone call to ascension upwardly and have dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No affair the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (notation the simile - like leeches) need to commencement thinking again virtually ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing upwardly of the speaker's whole have on the American Dream. A directly annunciation - the Dream will manifest at some time. Information technology has to.

Lines lxxx - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the sometime rotten, criminal arrangement, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - tin can be fabricated 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, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are four quatrains, two sextets, ane octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, nine 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 unmarried lines and very brusque lines turning up in mid-stanza.

Allow's accept a closer wait at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assist reinforce meaning. In poetry, at that place are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this verse form the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional manner but gradually becomes more than complex.

For example, take a look at the outset half dozen stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternate pattern in the outset three quatrains, with the strong total vowel rhyme eastward ascendant:

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

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

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

• Notwithstanding further downwards the line so to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the commencement of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and go/free with lea/complimentary.

Slant rhyme tends to claiming the reader because information technology is well-nigh to total rhyme simply isn't full rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It ways things aren't clicking in full, they're a petty bit out of harmony.

As the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in sure stanzas, every bit in stanza thirteen, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/rain/once again. The poet'southward aim with such concentrated rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader's heed and retentivity.

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 effect to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of free energy.

From the start stanza - Permit America/Let it be/Let it exist - to the terminal - The country, 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 congenital upwardly again and over 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 starting time four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the adjacent, keeping the flow of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Wait out for the 'open' end lines which encourage the reader to not pause but go along directly into the side by side line.

For example:

Permit information technology be the pioneer on the obviously

Seeking a home 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 ancient chain

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

Personification

That fifty-fifty yet its mighty daring sing

in every brick and stone, 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

© 2022 Andrew Spacey

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