Let America Be America Again Central Idea

Andrew has a groovy interest 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 "Let America Be America Over again"

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

The speaker in the poem outlines the reasons why this platonic America has gone, or never was, but could however exist.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day existence makes the dream a cruel illusion. The verse form 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 hitting, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the style forward 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 Blues.

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 black literature, following his earlier piece of work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black creative move peaking in the 1920s.

"Allow America Exist 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 Be America Over again

Permit America exist America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it exist the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a dwelling where he himself is free.

Curl to Go on

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of honey

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That whatsoever human being be crushed by one above.

(Information technology never was America to me.)

O, let my state be a country where Freedom

Is crowned with no fake patriotic wreath,

Just opportunity is real, and life is gratuitous,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There'southward never been equality for me,

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

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'southward scars.

I am the red man driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid programme

Of canis familiaris swallow dog, of mighty shell the weak.

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

Tangled in that aboriginal countless concatenation

Of turn a profit, ability, gain, of catch the land!

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

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 lot all.

I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, mean—

Hungry notwithstanding today despite the dream.

Beaten even so today—O, Pioneers!

I am the human being who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our bones dream

In the Sometime Earth while nevertheless a serf of kings,

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

That even however its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the country it has go.

O, I'1000 the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to exist my home—

For I'm the i who left night Ireland's shore,

And Poland's plainly, 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 down when we strike?

The millions who have 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 we've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'southward almost dead today.

O, let 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'due south mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's,

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose organized religion and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream over again.

Certain, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our land once again,

America!

O, yeah, I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And still I swear this oath—

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 state, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless obviously—

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

And brand America over again!

Line-Past-Line Analysis of "Let America Exist 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 speech, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to exist heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some night times, through history, to explicate just why that Dream needs to alive over again.

Lines 1 - 4

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

Notation the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of freedom who with tremendous will and endeavour established themselves a dwelling, confronting all the odds.

Line 5

Near as an aside, only 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 6 - nine

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

Annotation the dissimilarity of the linguistic communication used here. There is the dream and dearest of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, every bit if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalism - 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 - 14

The third quatrain, with alternate rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Freedom only 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 1 manus and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to brand the dream possible, to make information technology manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could exist in the air people exhale, means that equality should exist a natural given, role of the fabric that keeps us all alive, 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 freedom. (Homeland of the free - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'state of the free.')

Farther Analysis

Lines 17 - xviii

In italics for special reasons, these lines, two questions, correspond a turning point in the verse form; they are a different aspect of the speaker'southward identity. These 2 questions look dorsum, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and also expect forward.

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 showtime of the sextets, six lines which express even so another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the kickoff person, I am. Yet, this vocalism 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 brutal competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The 2d sextet focuses on the young man, any young man no affair, caught up in the industrial chaos of turn a profit for profit's sake, where greed is practiced and ability 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 dwelling the message loud and clear in this octet: the arrangement is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the servant, from the state to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream ways only hunger and poverty.

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

Lines 39 - fifty

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental freedoms in the offset identify. This is the roughshod irony. Those fleeing poverty, state of war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of existence truly free in a new land.

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 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 simple yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The adjacent x lines explore this notion of the free. Merely the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? Information technology's as if the speaker doesn't know himself whatever longer, or the reasons why the question of the gratis should arise. Only exactly who are the costless?

At that place are millions with little or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities annul with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and promise count for little - all that's left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, only with more than emotional input.....O, permit America be America once again. This is a plea from the eye, this fourth dimension more personal - ME - withal taking in many different types of people.

In these ix lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and need. Liberty for all. It'southward almost a phone call to ascent upwards and have dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of freedom is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to kickoff thinking again most ownership and rights to holding.

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines fourscore - 86

The concluding septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. In that location remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - tin be made good again.

Literary Devices in Allow America Exist America Once more

Allow America Be America Over again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are unmarried lines, two of which are couplets. In addition, there are iv quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, x liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

Permit'south 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 poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional fashion but gradually becomes more complex.

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

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

This is relatively easy to follow. At that place is an alternating design in the first three quatrains, with the potent full vowel rhyme e dominant:

be/free/me/me/Freedom/costless/me/gratis.

The total finish rhymes get out the reader in no doubt near ane of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the first 16 lines are straightforward plenty. Subsequently this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular blueprint and becomes stretched.

• However further down the line so to speak, in that location are nevertheless loose echoes of the familiar alternate pattern established at the offset of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and go/gratis with lea/costless.

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

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, equally in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/rain/again. The poet'south aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's mind and retention.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an of import role in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a like issue to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Let it exist - to the last - The state, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics accept likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech communication, 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 outset four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

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

For instance:

Let it exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is freeast.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless ancient chain

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

Personification

That fifty-fifty yet 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

smithbette2002.blogspot.com

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

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