Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes

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

Langston Hughes

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

"Permit America Be America Once more" 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 poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, just could still exist.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day existence 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 brand up America, both blackness and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the way forrard 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, but 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 mag and Hughes went on to become a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, post-obit his before work in the and then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Allow America Be America Once more" 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 black poets such equally Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Exist America Over again

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it exist the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a home where he himself is complimentary.

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(America never was America to me.)

Permit America exist the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let information technology be that great strong country of beloved

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man exist crushed by one higher up.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Freedom

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

Simply opportunity is real, and life is costless,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There'due south never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you lot that mumbles in the night?

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's scars.

I am the cherry man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the aforementioned old stupid program

Of dog eat dog, of mighty beat the weak.

I am the fellow, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that aboriginal countless concatenation

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

Of catch the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying demand!

Of work the men! Of accept the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondservant 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 man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

All the same I'grand the one who dreamt our bones dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

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

That even still its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That'due south made America the land it has become.

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

In search of what I meant to be my home—

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

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

And torn from Black Africa'south strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The gratis?

Who said the complimentary? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have goose egg 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 null for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been still—

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

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

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose religion and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream once again.

Sure, call me any ugly proper noun you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must accept back our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say it obviously,

America never was America to me,

And yet 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 plainly—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Permit America Be America 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 oral communication, 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 only why that Dream needs to live 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 call for the old America to exist brought back to life once again, to exist 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 5

Almost equally an aside, simply highly meaning, the single line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America equally 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 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the U.s.a., i of honey and equality. At that place would be no feudal system in place, 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 be equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line ten

Some other line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - over 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 to the lowest degree.

Lines 11 - fourteen

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up 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 brand information technology manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The proffer 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 live, sharing the mutual air.

Lines xv - 16

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

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - eighteen

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a different attribute of the speaker's identity. These ii questions look back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and too await forward.

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

Lines xix - 24

The outset 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 start person, I am. Still, this phonation also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - xxx

The 2nd sextet focuses on the young man, any young man no matter, caught upwards in the industrial anarchy of profit for profit's sake, where greed is good and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of capitalism encourages only selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, employ of the repeated phrase I am brings home the message loud and clear in this octet: the system is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the retainer, from the land 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 equally if they are bolt or coin.

Lines 39 - 50

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental freedoms in the first place. This is the savage irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly gratuitous in a new country.

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

More Line Past Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another strong question. The previous twelve lines (the previous l lines) all led to this acute point. A simple yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

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

There are millions with niggling or naught. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protestation songs and banners and promise 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, just with more emotional input.....O, let America be America once more. This is a plea from the heart, this fourth dimension more than personal - ME - yet taking in many different types of people.

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'southward intention and demand. Freedom for all. It's almost a call to rise upwardly and take back what belongs to the many and non the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and stiff. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to starting time thinking again about ownership and rights to belongings.

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines 80 - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal arrangement, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - can exist fabricated skillful once more.

Literary Devices in Allow America Be America Again

Permit America Be America Again is an 86 line poem divide into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, at that place are four quatrains, 2 sextets, one 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 like an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed past unmarried lines and very brusk lines turning up in mid-stanza.

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

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce significant. In verse, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional style simply gradually becomes more complex.

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

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

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

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

The full terminate rhymes go out the reader in no doubt near 1 of the chief themes of this verse form - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• Nonetheless further down the line then to speak, in that location are yet loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern 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 machine/mean and become/gratuitous with lea/free.

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

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more than intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza thirteen, pay/today and stanza 14, hurting/rain/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's mind 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 meaning and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of free 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 - at that place are repeats. Some critics have likened them to vocal lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, where ideas and images are built upward again and over again.

Alliteration

In that location are numerous examples of alliterative lines - when words with leading consonants are shut together - which bring texture and involvement to lines and a claiming to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/dwelling where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land exist a state where Liberty/slavery'south 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 break only get on directly into the next line.

For case:

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a domicile where he himself is free.

and once 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 country!

Personification

That even still 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

manningweenctiny1987.blogspot.com

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

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