Elements in Let Merica Be America Again

Andrew has a keen involvement 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 "Allow America Exist America Once again"

"Let America Be America Again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining freedom, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is well-nigh on impossible.

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

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of mean solar day to day existence makes the dream a vicious illusion. The verse form explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for case, 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 mode forwards with hope.

Langston Hughes was going through a hard period in his life when he wrote this poem. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, only couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse book publication, most notably The Weary Dejection.

It 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 go a noted if controversial effigy in the earth of black literature, following his earlier work in the then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Permit America Be 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 black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Once again

Let America exist America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Allow it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a domicile where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Permit America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it exist that great strong state of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any human be crushed past one above.

(Information technology never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Freedom

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air nosotros exhale.

(There's 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 yous that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed autonomously,

I am the Negro bearing slavery'due south scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding but the aforementioned old stupid plan

Of canis familiaris eat dog, of mighty trounce the weak.

I am the beau, total of force and promise,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the golden! Of grab the means of satisfying need!

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

Of owning everything for one'southward ain 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, hateful—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the human being who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

However I'one thousand the ane who dreamt our basic dream

In the One-time World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it has become.

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

In search of what I meant to be my domicile—

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

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

And torn from Black Africa'southward strand I came

To build a "homeland of the complimentary."

The free?

Who said the costless? 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 we've hung,

The millions who have zilch for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, allow America exist America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And nonetheless must be—the land where every man is free.

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

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose organized religion and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, telephone call me any ugly proper name yous choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take dorsum our state again,

America!

O, yep, I say it evidently,

America never was America to me,

And withal I swear this oath—

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 state, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless patently—

All, all the stretch of these peachy green states—

And brand America once again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Exist America Once again"

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 voice communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some nighttime times, through history, to explicate merely why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines one - four

Alternating rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the starting time stanza, nigh a song lyric. It's a direct call for the old America to be brought back to life once again, to be revived.

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

Line 5

Virtually as an aside, only 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 6 - 9

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme blueprint, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, i of beloved and equality. There would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - anybody would be equal.

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

Line 10

Some other line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - again making the betoken that this America hasn't existed for him, implying that he is far from the Dream. He is dubious to say the least.

Lines eleven - 14

The tertiary quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing up of Liberty merely for testify, which is phoney patriotism. The capital Fifty 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 hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to get in manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The proposition that equality could be in the air people exhale, ways that equality should be a natural given, office of the fabric that keeps united states of america all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines xv - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses one time again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, mayhap just has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could exist based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'state of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - xviii

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, correspond a turning betoken in the poem; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions wait back, 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 being able to see the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, vi lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks equally and for, i of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this vocalization also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the boyfriend, whatsoever beau no affair, 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 confront of capitalism encourages simply selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilize of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling house the bulletin 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, go mere numbers and are treated as if they are bolt or money.

Lines 39 - fifty

The longest stanza in the verse form, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental 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 inside, a dream of being 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 prepare out for a new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More Line By 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 enquire.

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'southward 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 gratuitous?

There are millions with little or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for fiddling - all that'due south left is a barely animate dream.

Lines 62 - lxx

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, let America be America once more. This is a plea from the heart, this time more than personal - ME - withal taking in many unlike types of people.

In these 9 lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'south intention and demand. Freedom for all. It's nearly a call to rise up and take back what belongs to the many and non the few.

Lines 71 - 75

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

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines eighty - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the quondam rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. At that place remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - tin be made proficient once more.

Literary Devices in Let America Exist America Over again

Let America Exist America Over again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, iii of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In improver, in that location are 4 quatrains, ii sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, ten 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 short lines turning up in mid-stanza.

Let's accept a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assist reinforce meaning. In poesy, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming blueprint starts in a conventional manner only gradually becomes more complex.

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

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

This is relatively easy to follow. At that place is an alternating blueprint in the first three quatrains, with the potent total vowel rhyme due east dominant:

be/free/me/me/Freedom/free/me/free.

The full cease rhymes leave the reader in no doubt nigh one of the principal themes of this verse form - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the outset 16 lines are straightforward enough. Afterward this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular design and becomes stretched.

• Withal farther down the line so to speak, there are nevertheless loose echoes of the familiar alternating blueprint established at the showtime of the poem.

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

soil/all with car/hateful and become/free with lea/free.

Camber rhyme tends to challenge the reader because information technology is well-nigh to full rhyme only isn't full rhyme to the ear, every bit in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in full, they're a little bit out of harmony.

As the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, equally in stanza xiii, 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 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 meaning and giving the feel of ability and aggregating of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Permit information technology be/Let it 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 oral communication, where ideas and images are built up again and again.

Alliteration

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

In the first four stanzas:

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

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the side by side, keeping the menstruum of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open' stop lines which encourage the reader to not pause but go on straight into the adjacent line.

For instance:

Let information technology be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a dwelling house where he himself is freeastward.

and over again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless aboriginal chain

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

Personification

That even nonetheless its mighty daring sing

in every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

Sources

world wide web.poets.org

Norton Album,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

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

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

mierinseatifee.blogspot.com

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

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