Let America Be America Again Purpose

Andrew has a slap-up interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the field of study. His poems are published online and in print.

Langston Hughes

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

"Let 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 poem outlines the reasons why this platonic America has gone, or never was, but could still exist.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to twenty-four hours 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 blackness and white.

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

Langston Hughes was going through a hard menstruum in his life when he wrote this poem. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, just 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 magazine and Hughes went on to become a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the and then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

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

Permit America Exist America Again

Let America be America once again.

Permit information technology be the dream it used to be.

Allow it be the pioneer on the evidently

Seeking a habitation where he himself is costless.

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong country of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by i above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my country be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

Only opportunity is existent, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There'south never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

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 land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding simply the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the immature man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient countless chain

Of turn a profit, power, proceeds, of grab the land!

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

Of piece of work the men! Of have the pay!

Of owning everything for 1'due south own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the car.

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 who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'g the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Erstwhile World while still a serf of kings,

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

That fifty-fifty yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's fabricated America the land it has become.

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

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I'thousand the one who left dark Ireland'south shore,

And Poland's obviously, 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 free? Non me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when nosotros strike?

The millions who take aught 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 state that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the state where every man is costless.

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

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose religion and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me whatsoever ugly name you choose—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

We must have dorsum our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say it obviously,

America never was America to me,

And even so I swear this adjuration—

America will 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 land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plainly—

All, all the stretch of these nifty greenish states—

And make America again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Again"

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to accept the reader through some dark times, through history, to explicate just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines one - iv

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

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

Line v

Most as an aside, just highly pregnant, 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 6 - 9

The 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, 1 of honey and equality. There would exist no feudal system in identify, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Note the contrast of the linguistic communication used hither. There is the dream and dear of those who would be equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - again making the indicate 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 tertiary quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upwardly of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the idea that this could be the Statue of Freedom, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Cleaved chains lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to brand it 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 fabric that keeps usa all live, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - sixteen

The rhyming couplet in parentheses in one case over again 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 exist based on the Star-Spangled Imprint lyrics 'land of the costless.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - eighteen

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, represent a turning bespeak in the verse form; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions look back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and as well await forrad.

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

Lines 19 - 24

The outset of the sextets, six lines which express yet another attribute of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, i of the oppressed, in the start person, I am. Yet, this vocalization 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 savage competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - thirty

The second sextet focuses on the boyfriend, any young man no matter, caught upward in the industrial chaos of profit for turn a profit's sake, where greed is adept and ability is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable confront of capitalism encourages only selfishness at whatever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Once again, utilize of the repeated phrase I am brings habitation the message loud and clear 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 means only hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, get mere numbers and are treated as if they are commodities or money.

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 identify. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, state of war and oppression; those forced to go out their native lands, had this dream within, a dream of being truly gratis in a new land.

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

More Line Past 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 uncomplicated withal searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

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

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

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, simply with more emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the heart, this fourth dimension 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 need. Freedom for all. Information technology'southward almost a call to rise up and take dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

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

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines lxxx - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the onetime rotten, criminal system, the people volition renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - can be made skilful once again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again

Permit America Exist America Again is an 86 line verse form separate into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, at that place are iv quatrains, 2 sextets, i octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

Let's take a closer look 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 verse form the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional manner simply gradually becomes more complex.

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

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

This is relatively easy to follow. In that location is an alternate pattern in the commencement three quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e dominant:

exist/free/me/me/Liberty/free/me/free.

The total end rhymes leave the reader in no doubt about one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A potent pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the offset sixteen lines are straightforward enough. Afterwards this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular design and becomes stretched.

• However further down the line so to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating design established at the first of the poem.

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

soil/all with motorcar/mean and become/free with lea/free.

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

As the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more than intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza thirteen, pay/today and stanza fourteen, hurting/rain/over again. The poet's 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 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 energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Permit it be - to the last - The state, 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 up again and again.

Ingemination

There are numerous examples of alliterative lines - when words with leading consonants are close together - which bring texture and interest to lines and a claiming to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the adjacent, keeping the menstruation of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open up' stop lines which encourage the reader to not pause but get on direct into the next line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the apparently

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless ancient concatenation

of profit, power, gain, of take hold of the land!

Personification

That fifty-fifty nevertheless 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

mccannwarl1966.blogspot.com

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

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