Let America Be America Again Poetic Form
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 "Let America Be America Again"
"Let America Exist America Over again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining freedom, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is nearly on impossible.
The speaker in the poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, just could still be.
For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to solar day being makes the dream a cruel 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 striking, the verse form does have an optimistic ending and lights the way forward with hope.
Langston Hughes was going through a difficult period in his life when he wrote this poem. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, merely couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poetry book publication, most 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 become a noted if controversial figure in the globe of black literature, following his earlier piece of work in the and then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.
"Let America Be America Again" reflects the many influences in Hughes'southward poetry - from the expansive piece of work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of earlier blackness poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Let America Exist America Again
Allow America be America over again.
Let it exist the dream information technology used to be.
Permit information technology be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a abode where he himself is free.
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(America never was America to me.)
Allow America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of beloved
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man exist crushed past i above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, allow my state be a land where Freedom
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is gratis,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(At that place's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom 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 autonomously,
I am the Negro bearing slavery'south scars.
I am the red human being driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the promise I seek—
And finding just the same former stupid plan
Of canis familiaris eat dog, of mighty beat the weak.
I am the immature man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of turn a profit, power, gain, of catch the country!
Of grab the gilded! Of take hold of the ways of satisfying need!
Of piece of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one'southward own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to yous all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry nevertheless today despite the dream.
Beaten nevertheless today—O, Pioneers!
I am the human being who never got alee,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our bones dream
In the Old World while nevertheless a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream and so stiff, then brave, so truthful,
That fifty-fifty nonetheless 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 home—
For I'yard the one who left night Republic of ireland's shore,
And Poland's patently, and England'due south grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa'south strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot downwards when we strike?
The millions who have nothing 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 aught for our pay—
Except the dream that's near dead today.
O, let America be America once again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The state that's mine—the poor man's, Indian'southward, Negro'south,
ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and claret, whose organized religion and hurting,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Certain, telephone call me any ugly proper name you cull—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must accept back our state once more,
America!
O, yeah, I say it evidently,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this adjuration—
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 country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the countless plainly—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
Line-By-Line Analysis of "Permit America Be America Over again"
This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical spoken language, to liberty and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain but why that Dream needs to live again.
Lines 1 - 4
Alternating rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the offset stanza, almost a song lyric. Information technology's a directly call for the erstwhile America to exist brought back to life over again, to exist revived.
Annotation the mention of the pioneer, those commencement seekers of liberty who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a home, against all the odds.
Line five
Almost every bit an aside, but highly meaning, 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 6 - 9
The 2nd lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme blueprint, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of beloved and equality. In that location would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - everyone would exist equal.
Note the contrast of the linguistic communication used here. In that location 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 phonation - 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 eleven - 14
The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upwards of Liberty just for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L 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 one mitt and the torch in the other. Cleaved bondage lie at her feet.
The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to make 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 fabric that keeps u.s.a. all alive, sharing the common air.
Lines xv - 16
The rhyming couplet in parentheses once once more repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, perhaps simply has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could be 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, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a different attribute of the speaker's identity. These 2 questions look back, questioning the speaker'south negativity (in parentheses) and also look forward.
The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a concealment of reality, of not being able to meet the truth.
Lines 19 - 24
The beginning of the sextets, six lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the outset person, I am. Yet, this voice also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.
And annotation that all types of person are included: white, black, native American, the immigrant. All are subject to the barbarous competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.
Lines 25 - 30
The second sextet focuses on the fellow, whatever fellow no matter, caught 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 home 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 just hunger and poverty.
Workers get de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated as if they are commodities or money.
Lines 39 - 50
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 cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to exit their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly costless in a new state.
They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from One-time 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, some other potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A uncomplicated yet searching ask.
Lines 52 - 61
The adjacent 10 lines explore this notion of the costless. But the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It'southward as if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the gratis should ascend. Only exactly who are the free?
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 promise count for little - all that'south left is a barely breathing dream.
Lines 62 - 70
The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, only with more than emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the centre, this time more than personal - ME - notwithstanding taking in many different types of people.
In these ix lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Liberty for all. Information technology's most a call to rise up and take dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.
Lines 71 - 75
No affair 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 offset thinking again near ownership and rights to belongings.
Lines 76 - 79
A short quatrain, a kind of summing upwards of the speaker'southward whole take on the American Dream. A directly declaration - the Dream will manifest at some time. Information technology has to.
Lines 80 - 86
The terminal septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal organisation, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains hope that the cherished platonic - America - tin can be made good once more.
Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again
Let America Be America Once again is an 86 line poem split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, in that location are four quatrains, 2 sextets, ane 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 like an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed past single lines and very curt lines turning upward in mid-stanza.
Let's have a closer look at the literary devices:
Rhyme Scheme
Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce significant. In verse, there are uncomplicated rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional fashion only gradually becomes more than circuitous.
For example, take a expect at the kickoff 6 stanzas:
- abab - (b) - cdcd - (b) - bebe - (bb)
This is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to follow. At that place is an alternate design in the first three quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e ascendant:
be/free/me/me/Freedom/free/me/free.
The full stop rhymes leave the reader in no doubt nigh i of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.
Then, the first xvi lines are straightforward enough. After this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular blueprint and becomes stretched.
- Withal further downwards the line then to speak, at that place are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the first of the poem.
Each of the larger stanzas contains some class of full rhyme, or full and slant rhyme:
soil/all with machine/mean and become/gratuitous with lea/free.
Slant rhyme tends to claiming the reader because it is almost to total rhyme but isn't full rhyme to the ear, equally in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in total, they're a little 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/rain/again. The poet's aim with such full-bodied rhyme is to brand the words stick in the reader's mind and retention.
Literary Device (ii)
Anaphora
Repetition plays an important function in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a similar event to chanting, reinforcing meaning and giving the feel of power and accumulation of energy.
From the first stanza - Let America/Let it exist/Allow information technology be - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics accept likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, 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 involvement to lines and a challenge to the reader.
In the first four stanzas:
pioneer on the plainly/dwelling house where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/country be a land where Freedom/slavery's scars.
Enjambment
Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the side by side, keeping the flow of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open up' end lines which encourage the reader to not break but proceed directly into the next line.
For case:
Allow it be the pioneer on the plainly
Seeking a domicile where he himself is free.
and again:
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
Metaphor
Tangled in that countless aboriginal concatenation
of turn a profit, power, proceeds, of grab the land!
Personification
That even nonetheless its mighty daring sing
in every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
Sources
www.poets.org
Norton Anthology,Norton, 2005
https://uwc.utexas.edu
100 Essential Mod Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005
© 2022 Andrew Spacey
Source: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Let-America-Be-America-Again-by-Langston-Hughes
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