Let America Be America Again Let America Be America Again Writter

'Let America Exist America Again' was written in 1935 and originally published a year afterward in Esquire Magazine. So later in A New Vocal, a small collection of poems. The poem was written while Hughes was traveling from New York to come across his mother in Ohio. Due to recent personal events, reviews, and the wellness of his mother, he turned to writing every bit an outlet to limited some of his deeper thoughts most what information technology was truly like to live in America. This poem explores the themes of identity, freedom, and equality. It is but as applicable to today'southward earth as information technology was in the mid-thirties. Readers today volition find several entry points into Hughes' experience of the American Dream.

Summary of Permit America Be America Again

'Let America Be America Again' by Langston Hughes is focused on the American Dream, what it ways, and how it is impossible to capture.

The poem takes the reader through the perspective of those who accept been put-upon by a system that is supposed to help them. They are the poor, the immigrants, the African Americans, and the Native Americans. They are whatsoever who have sought the American Dream and found it to be nonexistent, at least for them.

Through the text, Hughes outlines what it would hateful to really take the America that people say exists. Information technology volition require taking the country back from the "leeches" who feed on the poor and truly achieving freedom.

You can read the total poem here.

Structure of Permit America Be America Again

'Let America Be America Again' by Langston Hughes is an eighty-six line poem that is divided up into seventeen stanzas of varying lengths. The shortest stanzas are only one line long and the longest stretches to twelve. Usually, the poem is quite interesting. The stanzas are inconsistent, some of the lines are in parenthesis and some in italics.

At that place is non a single rhyme scheme that unites the entire poem, but there are patterns for stanzas and for sections. For case, the first 3 quatrains, four-line stanzas, generally rhyme ABAB. As the poem progresses though the rhyme scheme is less consistent. At that place are several examples of one-half-rhyme likewise.

Half-rhyme, also known as slant or partial rhyme, is seen through the repetition of assonance or consonance. This means that either a vowel or consonant sound is reused within one line or multiple lines of verse. For instance, "soil" and "all" in lines thirty-ane and thirty-three.

Poetic Techniques in Let America Be America Again

Hughes makes use of several poetic techniques in 'Permit America Be America Again'. These include but are not limited to anaphora, enjambment, alliteration, and metaphor. The kickoff, anaphora, is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, commonly in succession. This technique is often used to create emphasis. A listing of phrases, items, or actions may be created through its implementation. This technique is used frequently throughout the verse form. For example, "Let it exist" at the commencement of lines ii and three, every bit well as "I am the" which starts a total of x lines.

Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear shut together, and begin with the same sound. For example, "dream the dreamers dreamed" in line six.

Another of import technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader downward to the next line, and the adjacent, quickly. One has to motion forrard in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. At that place are several examples in this poem, including the transitions betwixt lines eleven and twelve, as well as twenty-six and twenty-seven.

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things that does non utilize "like" or "every bit" is also nowadays in the text. When using this technique a poet is saying that one thing is another thing, they aren't just similar. For instance, a reader can wait to lines twenty-half dozen and twenty-seven which read "Tangled in that ancient endless chain / Of profit, power, gain, of take hold of the state!"

Analysis of Let America Be America Over again

Lines 1-5

Let America exist America again.

Let information technology exist the dream it used to be.

(…)

(America never was America to me.)

In the first stanza of 'Let America Be America Again,' the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used every bit the title. He is request that things become back to the way they used to be, at least in everyone'southward heed. There was, some indeterminately long time ago, the feeling that anything was possible in America. At that place was the freedom of the "plainly" and the ability to seek a home for oneself. But, that dream is changing. It is non what it "used to exist".

This beginning quatrain is followed by a single line "(America never was America to me). To Hughes, living as a black man in America, things were always dissimilar.

Lines six-ten

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

(…)

(It never was America to me.)

The second quatrain reemphasizes what for some was a real, tangible dream they could strive for. The give-and-take "dream" is repeated several times throughout these starting time stanzas, emphasizing the fact that that is what it is—a dream. The poet asks that the "great strong land of dear" return. It is, in this description, an ideal place where tyranny has no foothold. Never, in this idealized version, was a man crushed by 1 above him.

But, as a contemporary reader should understand, this is simply fiction. That is non the America that exists today, nor did information technology ever exist. Hughes makes this clear in the follow up of a unmarried line, again in parenthesis, which says "It never was America to me". He knows his own experience and is not going to ignore it.

Lines 11-16

O, let my land be a state where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

(…)

(There'due south never been equality for me,

Nor liberty in this "homeland of the costless.")

The third quatrain follows the same ABAB rhyme scheme as the previous ii. A ii-line stanza, in parenthesis, follows. He dives dorsum into this over the pinnacle, arcadian image of America. It is, in the stories, songs, and movies, a "country where Liberty / Is crowned with no imitation patriotic wreath". Everything is perfect there and each person can attain success and happiness. The "opportunity is real" and "life is free". The word "complimentary" is key here.

The two that follow, which provide the reader with insight into the speaker's real thoughts nearly America, describe something dissimilar. He has not experienced that universal "quality" that America is supposedly known for. It is not the "'homeland of the complimentary"' for him.

Lines 17-24

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil beyond the stars?

(…)

And finding merely the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

The blueprint that had been developing in the previous stanzas of 'Let America Be America Again' dissolves when some other two-line stanza follows. Lines seventeen and eighteen are in italics. This was one in lodge to depict increased attention to them as a turning point in the verse form. Things are most to change in how the speaker talks virtually America.

These lines ask two questions. They are directed at the previous statements that came in parenthesis. The speaker'southward negativity is questioned. These lines advise that the speaker is trying to practise something evil. In his free speech, he is trying to disrupt the normal manner people see the earth.

The following six lines provide the voice with the start part of an answer. The speaker responds past saying that he is not just i person, but many. He is the nerveless mind of those that have not been able to arrive affect with the American dream. He is the "poor white" that has been "fooled" and taken reward of by those richer than he. The speaker is as well the "Negro bearing slavery'southward scars" and the "cherry human," a reference to Native Americans, who were "driven from the land". These, likewise as immigrant children, are outlined in this outset stanza of response.

He has found nothing in the world to make him believe in the American dream. There is only the "same onetime stupid plan / Of domestic dog consume dog" and the strong destroying those beneath them.

Lines 25-30

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

Tangled in that aboriginal countless chain

(…)

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one'south own greed!

The next 6 lines of 'Allow America Exist America Again' provide additional lines in response to the question. He is representing the "fellow" who began full of hope and is now stuck in the web of capitalism and the "canis familiaris eat domestic dog" globe.

Hughes uses anaphora in these lines to emphasize what information technology takes to move through the world while seeking success. One has to grab "turn a profit, ability". They take to "grab the gold" and "grab the ways of satisfying need". It is have, accept, take.

Lines 31-38

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

(…)

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

The next 4 lines of 'Let America Be America Once again' also use anaphora in the repetition of "I am" at the first of the lines. He explains that he besides represents the farmer, worker, Negro, and "people, humble, hungry, mean". The use of alliteration in this line makes the stanza overall experience more rhythmic. One should bounciness from give-and-take to word while taking in Hughes's pregnant.

He is everyone that has been pushed down and locked out of the American Dream as he outlined it in the offset few stanzas. That dream does not exist for him. He refers to them equally men and women who "never got ahead". He is the "poorest worker bartered" by employers, "through the years".

Lines 39-50

Yet I'one thousand the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Quondam World while still a serf of kings,

(…)

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the costless."

The next stanza of 'Let American Exist America Over again' is the longest of the verse form with twelve lines. It speaks on the history of those who take come to America in search of that dream but have been unable to observe it. He "dreamt our basic dream" while still in the "Old World" where dreams such as that felt impossible. He relates the immigrants who kickoff came to America, and the dream they were seeking, to its nonexistence today. They wanted something strong, brave, and truthful but that does not exist now.

He casts himself as "the man who staled those early seas" looking for a new home. He is the Irishman, the Pole, the Englishman, he is the African "torn from Black Africa's strand". All are in America now wanting to build a life.

Lines 51-61

The gratuitous?

Who said the free?  Non me?

Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?

(…)

The millions who take nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

The word "free" is in question in the post-obit line. Information technology stands by itself, a two-give-and-take line. "The gratis?" It draws the reader's attention in an acute and precise way.

He follows this upwardly with a serial of questions request who would even say the word "costless?" The millions who are "shot down when we strike?" Or those who "accept zilch for our pay?" There is no "free" to speak of.

All that'due south left for any of those people that Hughes has mentioned is the sliver of the dream that'south "almost dead today".

Lines 62-69

O, allow America be America over again—

The land that never has been nonetheless—

(…)

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

The opening line of 'Permit America Be America Again' is repeated at the beginning of this stanza. Hither, he explores what America is really like and what he would like information technology to be. He speaks of himself, "ME" and all those who "fabricated America" what information technology is. Those who should benefit nearly are besides those who gave their "sweat and claret". America is built on "religion and pain" and information technology is those who have given the most who should benefit. He hopes that the dream will return to them, anytime.

Lines lxx-79

Sure, call me any ugly name yous choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

(…)

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

(…)

The seventieth line of 'Allow America Exist America Again' admits that many are going to push dorsum against the speaker. He volition be chosen "ugly name[s]" but nothing is going to stop him from pursuing the freedom he wants. It is a brave and honorable affair to pursue freedom and he won't be knocked down by the "leeches". These are the men and women who accept reward of the hard-working people mentioned in the previous stanzas. He speaks rousingly to the masses, "We must have back our land again" and make it the America it was meant to be.

It might not have been America to this speaker before, or correct at present, just through these lines, he establishes a goal to brand it the America he wants.

Lines fourscore-86

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

(…)

All, all the stretch of these smashing green states—

And make America again!

In the final lines of 'Permit America Be America Over again' the speaker explains that from the dark, "rape and rot of graft, and steal, and lies" there will come up something bright and skilful. The people are going to exist redeemed and costless. The vastness of the country volition resemble the vastness and freedom of the people. Those put upon and forgotten volition renew the earth.

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Source: https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/let-america-be-america-again/

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