Let America Be America Again and Other Poems Langston Hughes

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

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Permit America Be America 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 nigh on impossible.

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

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day existence makes the dream a brutal 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 up America, both black and white.

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

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

It was on a train journey through Depression-struck America in 1935 that inspired him to pen this archetype 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 blackness literature, following his earlier work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's poesy - 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.

Let America Be America Over again

Let America be America again.

Let it exist the dream information technology used to be.

Let it exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Allow America exist the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it exist that peachy stiff state of dearest

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

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

(It never was America to me.)

O, allow my country exist a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air nosotros breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you that mumbles in the nighttime?

And who are y'all 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 ruby-red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the aforementioned old stupid plan

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

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

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the gold! 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, retainer to y'all all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Browbeaten notwithstanding today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got alee,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the ane who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so potent, and 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 state it has become.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early on seas

In search of what I meant to exist my home—

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

And Poland'south plain, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Blackness Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the gratuitous? Not me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot downward when we strike?

The millions who have zero 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 nil for our pay—

Except the dream that's near dead today.

O, let America exist America once more—

The state that never has been nonetheless—

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

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose paw at the foundry, whose plough in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, telephone call me any ugly proper noun you lot cull—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

Nosotros must take back our land once again,

America!

O, yep, I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this adjuration—

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster expiry,

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

We, the people, must redeem

The state, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless patently—

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

And brand America again!

Line-Past-Line Analysis of "Allow America Exist America Again"

This whole verse form 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 be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some nighttime times, through history, to explicate just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - iv

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

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

Line five

Almost equally an aside, only highly significant, the single line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America as an platonic just hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?

Lines 6 - ix

The 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme design, places stronger accent on the dream, the original vision people had for the U.s.a., one of dearest and equality. In that location would be no feudal arrangement in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Annotation the contrast of the language used hither. At that place is the dream and dear of those who would be equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and shell.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner phonation - 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 xi - 14

The 3rd quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The uppercase 50 reinforces the idea that this could exist the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Announcement of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Cleaved chains lie at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to brand the dream possible, to brand it 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 us all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines fifteen - 16

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

Farther Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

In italics for special reasons, these lines, two questions, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a dissimilar aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions await back, questioning the speaker'due south negativity (in parentheses) and as well look forward.

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

Lines xix - 24

The starting time of the sextets, vi lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks every bit and for, 1 of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this vocalisation 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 subject to the fell competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - thirty

The second sextet focuses on the immature man, whatever young man no matter, defenseless up in the industrial chaos of profit for profit'southward sake, where greed is skillful and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face up of capitalism encourages just selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilise of the repeated phrase I am brings home the bulletin loud and articulate in this octet: the system 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 just hunger and poverty.

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

Lines 39 - 50

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of cardinal freedoms in the first place. 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 existence truly free in a new land.

They travelled to America in the promise of realizing this dream. People from Former 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, some other stiff question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this astute point. A simple notwithstanding searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next ten lines explore this notion of the free. Merely 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. Only exactly who are the free?

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

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, simply with more emotional input.....O, allow America exist America again. This is a plea from the heart, 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. Freedom for all. It's nearly a call to rising up and take dorsum what belongs to the many and non the few.

Lines 71 - 75

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

Lines 76 - 79

A brusque quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker's whole take on the American Dream. A directly announcement - the Dream volition manifest at some fourth dimension. It has to.

Lines 80 - 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. There remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - tin be fabricated skilful once again.

Literary Devices in Permit America Be America Again

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line poem split up into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are four quatrains, 2 sextets, ane octet, a twelve liner, 10 liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the page the poem looks more like an extended vocal lyric, with quatrains followed past unmarried lines and very short lines turning upward in mid-stanza.

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

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assist 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 manner but gradually becomes more complex.

For example, take a await at the first half dozen stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. In that location is an alternating pattern in the outset iii quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e ascendant:

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

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

And so, the first 16 lines are straightforward plenty. Later this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• Nevertheless further down the line so to speak, there are all the same 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 total and slant rhyme:

soil/all with car/mean and get/costless with lea/gratis.

Camber rhyme tends to challenge the reader because information technology is near to full rhyme just isn't full rhyme to the ear, every bit in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in full, they're a petty bit out of harmony.

Equally the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in sure stanzas, as in stanza xiii, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/rain/again. The poet'south aim with such full-bodied rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's mind and memory.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an of import function in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a similar effect to chanting, reinforcing pregnant and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let information technology be/Allow it be - to the concluding - 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 oral communication, where ideas and images are built upwards again and once more.

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 four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the menstruum of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Await out for the 'open' end lines which encourage the reader to non suspension but go on direct into the next line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient chain

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

Personification

That even nonetheless 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 Mod Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

davisevisold.blogspot.com

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

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