The Poem Called Let America Be America Again and I Too
'Let America Be America Again' was written in 1935 and originally published a year afterwards in Esquire Mag. And so after in A New Song, a small drove of poems. The poem was written while Hughes was traveling from New York to see his female parent in Ohio. Due to recent personal events, reviews, and the health of his mother, he turned to writing every bit an outlet to limited some of his deeper thoughts about what it was truly like to alive in America. This poem explores the themes of identity, liberty, and equality. Information technology is but equally applicable to today's globe as it was in the mid-thirties. Readers today will find several entry points into Hughes' feel of the American Dream.
Summary of Permit America Be America Over again
'Permit America Be America Once more' by Langston Hughes is focused on the American Dream, what information technology means, and how information technology is impossible to capture.
The verse form takes the reader through the perspective of those who have been put-upon by a system that is supposed to assistance them. They are the poor, the immigrants, the African Americans, and the Native Americans. They are any who have sought the American Dream and found information technology to be nonexistent, at least for them.
Through the text, Hughes outlines what it would mean to really take the America that people say exists. It will require taking the country back from the "leeches" who feed on the poor and truly achieving freedom.
You tin can read the full poem here.
Construction of Let 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 ane line long and the longest stretches to twelve. Ordinarily, the poem is quite interesting. The stanzas are inconsistent, some of the lines are in parenthesis and some in italics.
At that place is not a unmarried rhyme scheme that unites the entire poem, but there are patterns for stanzas and for sections. For example, the first three quatrains, four-line stanzas, by and large rhyme ABAB. As the verse form progresses though the rhyme scheme is less consistent. At that place are several examples of half-rhyme as well.
Half-rhyme, too 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 example, "soil" and "all" in lines thirty-ane and thirty-three.
Poetic Techniques in Let America Be America Again
Hughes makes utilize of several poetic techniques in 'Let America Be America Once more'. These include but are not limited to anaphora, enjambment, alliteration, and metaphor. The first, anaphora, is the repetition of a discussion or phrase at the commencement of multiple lines, usually in succession. This technique is frequently used to create emphasis. A list of phrases, items, or actions may be created through its implementation. This technique is used frequently throughout the poem. For example, "Let it be" at the get-go of lines two and three, also equally "I am the" which starts a total of x lines.
Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same audio. For case, "dream the dreamers dreamed" in line vi.
Some other of import technique commonly used in poesy is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off earlier its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the adjacent, apace. Ane has to movement forward in club to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. There are several examples in this verse form, including the transitions between lines 11 and twelve, too as xx-6 and 20-seven.
A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things that does not use "like" or "as" is likewise nowadays in the text. When using this technique a poet is saying that one thing is another thing, they aren't merely like. For case, a reader can look to lines twenty-six and twenty-seven which read "Tangled in that ancient endless chain / Of turn a profit, power, gain, of grab the land!"
Assay of Let America Be America Again
Lines 1-5
Let America be America once more.
Let it be the dream it used to exist.
(…)
(America never was America to me.)
In the starting time stanza of 'Permit America Exist America Again,' the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used every bit the championship. He is asking that things go dorsum to the way they used to be, at least in anybody's mind. There was, some indeterminately long time ago, the feeling that anything was possible in America. There was the freedom of the "plain" and the power to seek a home for oneself. Just, that dream is changing. Information technology is not what it "used to exist".
This first quatrain is followed past a single line "(America never was America to me). To Hughes, living as a black human in America, things were always different.
Lines 6-10
Allow America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that smashing strong land of dear
(…)
(Information technology never was America to me.)
The second quatrain reemphasizes what for some was a real, tangible dream they could strive for. The word "dream" is repeated several times throughout these first stanzas, emphasizing the fact that that is what information technology is—a dream. The poet asks that the "cracking stiff state of love" return. It is, in this clarification, an ideal place where tyranny has no foothold. Never, in this arcadian version, was a homo crushed past 1 above him.
But, as a contemporary reader should understand, this is only fiction. That is not the America that exists today, nor did it ever exist. Hughes makes this clear in the follow upwardly of a single 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 xi-sixteen
O, let my state be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no simulated patriotic wreath,
(…)
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor liberty in this "homeland of the complimentary.")
The third quatrain follows the same ABAB rhyme scheme every bit the previous two. A two-line stanza, in parenthesis, follows. He dives back into this over the top, idealized image of America. It is, in the stories, songs, and movies, a "country where Liberty / Is crowned with no fake patriotic wreath". Everything is perfect there and each person can attain success and happiness. The "opportunity is real" and "life is free". The word "gratis" is primal here.
The two that follow, which provide the reader with insight into the speaker'southward real thoughts about America, depict something different. He has not experienced that universal "quality" that America is supposedly known for. It is not the "'homeland of the costless"' for him.
Lines 17-24
Say, who are yous that mumbles in the night?
And who are yous that draws your veil across the stars?
(…)
And finding but the same old stupid plan
Of dog consume dog, of mighty trounce the weak.
The pattern that had been developing in the previous stanzas of 'Allow America Be America Again' dissolves when another two-line stanza follows. Lines seventeen and eighteen are in italics. This was one in social club to draw increased attention to them as a turning bespeak in the poem. Things are about to alter in how the speaker talks most America.
These lines ask two questions. They are directed at the previous statements that came in parenthesis. The speaker's negativity is questioned. These lines suggest that the speaker is trying to do something evil. In his free oral communication, he is trying to disrupt the normal way people see the world.
The following half dozen lines provide the voice with the showtime part of an answer. The speaker responds by saying that he is not just one person, but many. He is the collected mind of those that have not been able to arrive touch with the American dream. He is the "poor white" that has been "fooled" and taken advantage of past those richer than he. The speaker is also the "Negro bearing slavery's scars" and the "cerise man," a reference to Native Americans, who were "driven from the land". These, as well as immigrant children, are outlined in this start stanza of response.
He has establish nothing in the world to make him believe in the American dream. There is just the "same old stupid program / Of dog swallow canis familiaris" and the strong destroying those beneath them.
Lines 25-30
I am the young man, full of forcefulness and hope,
Tangled in that aboriginal countless concatenation
(…)
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for 1'south own greed!
The side by side half dozen lines of 'Let America Exist America Over again' provide boosted lines in response to the question. He is representing the "young man" who began full of promise and is now stuck in the web of capitalism and the "dog swallow dog" world.
Hughes uses anaphora in these lines to emphasize what it takes to motion through the world while seeking success. I has to grab "profit, power". They have to "grab the gold" and "grab the means of satisfying need". Information technology is take, take, take.
Lines 31-38
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
(…)
I am the human being who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
The next four lines of 'Let America Be America Once again' also utilize anaphora in the repetition of "I am" at the beginning of the lines. He explains that he also represents the farmer, worker, Negro, and "people, apprehensive, hungry, mean". The use of alliteration in this line makes the stanza overall feel more rhythmic. One should bounciness from discussion to give-and-take while taking in Hughes's meaning.
He is everyone that has been pushed downwardly and locked out of the American Dream as he outlined it in the first few stanzas. That dream does non exist for him. He refers to them every bit men and women who "never got ahead". He is the "poorest worker bartered" by employers, "through the years".
Lines 39-l
Yet I'thousand the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Onetime World while still a serf of kings,
(…)
And torn from Blackness Africa'due south strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The next stanza of 'Permit American Be America Once more' is the longest of the verse form with twelve lines. Information technology speaks on the history of those who accept come to America in search of that dream but accept been unable to find information technology. He "dreamt our basic dream" while notwithstanding in the "One-time World" where dreams such equally that felt incommunicable. He relates the immigrants who start came to America, and the dream they were seeking, to its nonexistence today. They wanted something strong, brave, and true simply that does non exist now.
He casts himself as "the human who staled those early seas" looking for a new abode. He is the Irishman, the Pole, the Englishman, he is the African "torn from Black Africa'south strand". All are in America at present wanting to build a life.
Lines 51-61
The gratuitous?
Who said the gratuitous? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
(…)
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that'due south almost expressionless today.
The word "free" is in question in the post-obit line. It stands past itself, a two-word line. "The free?" It draws the reader's attention in an acute and precise mode.
He follows this upwards with a serial of questions asking who would even say the discussion "free?" The millions who are "shot down when nosotros strike?" Or those who "take naught for our pay?" There is no "complimentary" to speak of.
All that's left for whatsoever of those people that Hughes has mentioned is the sliver of the dream that'south "almost dead today".
Lines 62-69
O, let America exist America again—
The land that never has been nonetheless—
(…)
Whose paw at the foundry, whose plough in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream over again.
The opening line of 'Let America Be America Over again' is repeated at the get-go of this stanza. Here, he explores what America is really similar and what he would like it to exist. He speaks of himself, "ME" and all those who "made America" what information technology is. Those who should do good most are likewise those who gave their "sweat and blood". America is built on "organized religion and hurting" and it is those who have given the almost who should benefit. He hopes that the dream will return to them, anytime.
Lines seventy-79
Certain, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of liberty does non stain.
(…)
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
(…)
The seventieth line of 'Let America Be America Again' admits that many are going to button back confronting the speaker. He volition be called "ugly name[s]" merely nothing is going to stop him from pursuing the freedom he wants. It is a brave and honorable matter to pursue liberty and he won't be knocked downwardly by the "leeches". These are the men and women who take advantage of the hard-working people mentioned in the previous stanzas. He speaks rousingly to the masses, "We must take back our land once again" and make it the America it was meant to be.
It might non have been America to this speaker before, or right now, merely through these lines, he establishes a goal to get in the America he wants.
Lines 80-86
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 groovy greenish states—
And make America once more!
In the final lines of 'Let America Be America Over again' the speaker explains that from the nighttime, "rape and rot of graft, and steal, and lies" there will come up something vivid and proficient. The people are going to be redeemed and free. The vastness of the country will resemble the vastness and freedom of the people. Those put upon and forgotten will renew the world.
Source: https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/let-america-be-america-again/
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