Summary of Let America Be America Again

Andrew has a great 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 "Permit America Be America Again"

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

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

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

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the poem does have an optimistic catastrophe and lights the way forwards 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 poesy book publication, about 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 go a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black creative motion peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America Over again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's verse - from the expansive work of Whitman to street linguistic communication, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of earlier black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Again

Let America exist America over again.

Let it exist the dream it used to be.

Permit it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is gratis.

Curl to Go along

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let information technology be that great potent land 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 Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

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

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 human being driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same one-time stupid plan

Of dog swallow dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young homo, total of forcefulness and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the gilt! Of take hold of the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one'due south own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, retainer to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten withal today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Former World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, and so brave, and 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'chiliad the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the i who left dark Ireland'southward shore,

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

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the complimentary."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when nosotros 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 nosotros've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's near dead today.

O, let America be America once again—

The land that never has been however—

And yet must exist—the country where every man is gratis.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

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

We must take back our country once more,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America volition be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster decease,

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 bang-up greenish states—

And make America over again!

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

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-institute the Dream. It is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical oral communication, to liberty and equality. To enable that plea to exist heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - 4

Alternating rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the beginning stanza, well-nigh a song lyric. It's a directly call for the old America to be brought back to life again, to be revived.

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

Line 5

Almost equally an aside, just highly significant, 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 - nine

The second 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. There would be no feudal organisation in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Note the contrast of the language used hither. There is the dream and love 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 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 11 - 14

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Liberty merely for evidence, which is phoney patriotism. The capital 50 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 i hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to brand the dream possible, to brand information technology 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 cloth that keeps us all alive, sharing the mutual air.

Lines 15 - xvi

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

Farther Analysis

Lines 17 - xviii

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, represent a turning bespeak in the poem; they are a different aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions await dorsum, questioning the speaker'southward 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 see the truth.

Lines nineteen - 24

The first of the sextets, half-dozen lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks equally and for, ane of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this vocalism 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 vicious competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the swain, whatsoever young man no matter, defenseless upwardly in the industrial chaos 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 whatever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, use of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling house 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 simply 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 first place. This is the barbarous irony. Those fleeing poverty, state of war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being 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 gear up out for a new life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another strong question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A unproblematic yet searching enquire.

Lines 52 - 61

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

At that place are millions with little or nil. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation arranged, the government counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and promise count for little - all that's left is a barely animate dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, merely with more than emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the heart, this time more personal - ME - however 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'southward about 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 strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to kickoff thinking again about ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker'due south whole take on the American Dream. A direct declaration - the Dream will manifest at some fourth dimension. Information technology has to.

Lines 80 - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the sometime rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains hope that the cherished platonic - America - tin can exist made good again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Once more

Allow America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split up into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, in that location are 4 quatrains, two sextets, 1 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 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 await at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assistance reinforce significant. In poetry, in that location are simple rhyme schemes and at that place are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming design 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. At that place is an alternating design in the first 3 quatrains, with the stiff total vowel rhyme eastward dominant:

exist/free/me/me/Liberty/costless/me/gratuitous.

The full stop rhymes leave the reader in no doubt virtually ane of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• However further downwards the line so to speak, at that place are nonetheless loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the beginning of the poem.

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

soil/all with automobile/mean and become/complimentary with lea/free.

Camber rhyme tends to claiming the reader considering information technology is about to full rhyme just isn't full rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in full, they're a picayune bit out of harmony.

Equally the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/pelting/again. The poet's aim with such full-bodied rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader'southward mind and memory.

Literary Device (ii)

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 power and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Let information technology be - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - in that location are repeats. Some critics have likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political voice communication, where ideas and images are congenital up again and again.

Ingemination

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

In the showtime four stanzas:

pioneer on the obviously/habitation where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a land where Liberty/slavery's 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' cease lines which encourage the reader to not break but continue straight into the next line.

For example:

Allow it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is freeastward.

and again:

We, 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 even yet its mighty daring sing

in every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

Sources

world wide web.poets.org

Norton Anthology,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

100 Essential Modern Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

browningstroned43.blogspot.com

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

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