Let America Be America Again Poems

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 "Permit America Be America Again"

"Let America Exist America Again" focuses on the thought 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 withal be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day existence makes the dream a cruel illusion. The poem explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for case, and outlines the unique struggles of the poor who brand upwardly America, both black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the verse form does accept an optimistic ending and lights the way forward with promise.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult menstruation in his life when he wrote this poem. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, simply couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poetry book publication, nigh notably The Weary Blues.

Information technology was on a train journeying 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 blackness literature, following his earlier work in the so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

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

Let America Be America Over again

Permit America be America again.

Permit it exist the dream it used to exist.

Let it be the pioneer on the apparently

Seeking a abode where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let information technology be that smashing strong country of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by ane above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a state where Freedom

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we exhale.

(There'south never been equality for me,

Nor liberty 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's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same former stupid plan

Of dog eat domestic dog, of mighty beat the weak.

I am the immature man, total of strength and promise,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of catch the gilt! Of grab the means of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own 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, apprehensive, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten even so today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Notwithstanding I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Erstwhile World while notwithstanding a serf of kings,

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

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That'due south made America the land information technology has get.

O, I'm the human being who sailed those early on seas

In search of what I meant to exist my home—

For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,

And Poland'southward obviously, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the costless."

The gratuitous?

Who said the free? Non me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when nosotros strike?

The millions who have cipher for our pay?

For all the dreams nosotros'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 most expressionless today.

O, let America be America once more—

The land that never has been all the same—

And yet must be—the land where every man is complimentary.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream once again.

Certain, call me any ugly name yous choose—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

Nosotros must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet 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,

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

The country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the countless manifestly—

All, all the stretch of these peachy light-green states—

And brand America over again!

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

This whole verse form 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 explain just why that Dream needs to live once more.

Lines ane - 4

Alternating rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the first stanza, almost a song lyric. Information technology'southward a direct call for the erstwhile America to be brought back to life once again, to exist revived.

Note the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of freedom who with tremendous will and try established themselves a dwelling house, against all the odds.

Line 5

Near 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 half-dozen - 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 dear and equality. There would be no feudal organisation in identify, no dictatorships - anybody would be equal.

Notation the contrast of the language used here. There is the dream and love of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line ten

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalization - again making the signal 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 alternate rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upward of Liberty simply for show, which is phoney patriotism. The majuscule L reinforces the idea that this could exist the Statue of Freedom, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Announcement of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains prevarication at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to brand it manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could be in the air people breathe, ways that equality should be a natural given, function of the fabric that keeps u.s. all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - 16

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

Further Assay

Lines 17 - 18

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker'south identity. These two questions look dorsum, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and also look frontward.

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of non existence able to come across the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, six lines which express all the same some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this vocalisation also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - 30

The second sextet focuses on the fellow, whatsoever young human no matter, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for turn a profit's 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

Again, use 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 servant, from the country to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream ways only hunger and poverty.

Workers get de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated every bit if they are bolt or coin.

Lines 39 - l

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of primal freedoms in the first place. This is the brutal irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to leave their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly complimentary in a new state.

They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from Onetime Europe, many from Africa, all set out for a new life, liberty 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 betoken. A simple notwithstanding 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? Information technology's equally if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the complimentary should ascend. Just exactly who are the gratis?

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

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, but with more than emotional input.....O, let America exist 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 demand. Freedom for all. It'south almost a call to rise up and accept back what belongs to the many and non the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and potent. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) demand to start thinking again nigh ownership and rights to belongings.

Lines 76 - 79

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

Lines 80 - 86

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

Literary Devices in Permit America Be America Again

Allow America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In improver, at that place are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, ten 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 past single lines and very brusk lines turning up in mid-stanza.

Let'south take a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce meaning. In verse, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming blueprint starts in a conventional manner simply gradually becomes more circuitous.

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

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating design in the get-go 3 quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme eastward ascendant:

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

The full terminate rhymes exit the reader in no dubiousness well-nigh one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A stiff pairing ensures a memorable bond.

And then, the first sixteen lines are straightforward enough. After 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 beginning of the poem.

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

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

Camber rhyme tends to challenge the reader because it is near to full rhyme but isn't total rhyme to the ear, every bit in soil/all. Information technology 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 xiii, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/rain/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader's mind and retentiveness.

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 event to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of free energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let information technology be/Let it be - to the terminal - The state, the plants, the mines, the rivers - in that location are repeats. Some critics accept likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, where ideas and images are built 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 challenge to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a country where Liberty/slavery'southward 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' finish lines which encourage the reader to not pause merely become on straight into the adjacent line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a dwelling where he himself is free.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient chain

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

Personification

That fifty-fifty still its mighty daring sing

in every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

Sources

www.poets.org

Norton Album,Norton, 2005

https://uwc.utexas.edu

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

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

davenportwhictime.blogspot.com

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