What Was Langston Hughes Attitude in Let America Be America Again

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 "Let 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 ideal America has gone, or never was, simply could still be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to twenty-four hour period being makes the dream a vicious 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 black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hit, the verse form does accept an optimistic ending and lights the way forward 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, just couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse book publication, most notably The Weary Blues.

Information technology was on a train journey through Depression-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 so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Exist America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes'southward verse - from the expansive work of Whitman to street linguistic communication, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before black poets such every bit Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America over again.

Let information technology exist the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a abode 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 be that great stiff land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man exist crushed by 1 above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no simulated patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is gratuitous,

Equality is in the air we exhale.

(There's 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 begetting slavery'south scars.

I am the red homo driven from the country,

I am the immigrant clutching the promise I seek—

And finding just the same old stupid program

Of domestic dog consume domestic dog, of mighty vanquish the weak.

I am the young human being, full of strength and promise,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of turn a 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 automobile.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry all the same today despite the dream.

Browbeaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the homo who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'yard the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so potent, so brave, then true,

That even withal its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That'south made 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'm the i who left dark Ireland's shore,

And Poland'south evidently, and England'due south grassy lea,

And torn from Blackness Africa'due south strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

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 zip for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs nosotros've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have zilch 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 even so must be—the land where every man is gratuitous.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly proper noun you choose—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

We must take back our country again,

America!

O, yes, I say it manifestly,

America never was America to me,

And however I swear this adjuration—

America will be!

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 plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America once more!

Line-Past-Line Assay of "Let America Exist America Once more"

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-found the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech, to liberty 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 explain just why that Dream needs to live once more.

Lines i - 4

Alternate rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the first stanza, well-nigh a song lyric. It's a direct call for the sometime America to be brought back to life once again, to be revived.

Note the mention of the pioneer, those starting time seekers of liberty who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a habitation, against all the odds.

Line 5

Nigh as an aside, only 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 6 - ix

The 2nd 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 organisation in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Note the dissimilarity of the language used here. At that place is the dream and love of those who would be equal, confronting those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line x

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - 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 - fourteen

The 3rd quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing upwardly of Liberty merely for bear witness, which is phoney patriotism. The capital Fifty reinforces the thought that this could be the Statue of Freedom, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in ane 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 proposition that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should be a natural given, office of the fabric that keeps u.s.a. all live, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - sixteen

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

Farther Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

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 start of the sextets, half dozen lines which limited yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the kickoff person, I am. Yet, this voice likewise expresses the commonage, 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 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the young man, any beau no affair, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for profit'due south 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

Over again, utilize 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 ways just hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, go 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 central freedoms in the first place. This is the fell irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream within, a dream of beingness truly free in a new land.

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

More than Line By Line Assay

Line 51

A single line, another potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute betoken. A elementary yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next 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 ascend. Simply exactly who are the complimentary?

There are millions with little or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest bundled, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protestation songs and banners and promise count for piddling - all that'south left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, just with more emotional input.....O, allow America be 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 need. Freedom for all. It's virtually a phone call to ascent up and take back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - similar leeches) need to first thinking again about ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines fourscore - 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 hope that the cherished ideal - America - can be fabricated good again.

Literary Devices in Allow America Be America Again

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, three of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In improver, there are iv quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, x liner, nine liner, quintet, and a vii liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the page the poem looks more like an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed by unmarried lines and very short lines turning upwardly 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 poesy, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional manner only gradually becomes more complex.

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

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

This is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to follow. In that location is an alternating pattern in the starting time 3 quatrains, with the strong total vowel rhyme e dominant:

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

The total end rhymes go out the reader in no doubtfulness about one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• Even so further down the line and then to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the beginning of the verse form.

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

soil/all with machine/hateful and become/complimentary with lea/free.

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

Equally the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza fourteen, hurting/rain/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader'south mind and memory.

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 similar upshot to chanting, reinforcing meaning and giving the experience of power and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Let it exist - to the last - 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 speech communication, where ideas and images are built up again and once again.

Ingemination

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

In the first four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the menses of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open' finish lines which encourage the reader to not pause but go along directly into the next line.

For instance:

Permit it be the pioneer on the plain

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 concatenation

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

Personification

That even 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

maastheiner.blogspot.com

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

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