What Is the Theme of the Poem Let America Be America Again

Andrew has a neat interest in all aspects of verse and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in impress.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Let America Exist America Again"

"Let America Be America Once again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining freedom, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is about on impossible.

The speaker in the verse form outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, simply could still be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to twenty-four hours beingness 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 up America, both blackness and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the verse form does have an optimistic ending and lights the manner frontward 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, but couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse volume publication, nigh notably The Weary Blues.

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 truthful 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 work in the and so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black creative motility peaking in the 1920s.

"Permit America Exist America Once again" reflects the many influences in Hughes'south poetry - from the expansive work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of earlier black poets such equally Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Over again

Allow America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let information technology exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is costless.

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it exist that groovy strong land of beloved

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That whatsoever man be crushed by one to a higher place.

(Information technology never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is complimentary,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(At that place's never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you that mumbles in the nighttime?

And who are you lot 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 carmine man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

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

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

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of take hold of the gilded! Of catch the ways of satisfying demand!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, retainer to yous all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, hateful—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten still today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Nevertheless I'm the i who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old Globe while still a serf of kings,

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

That even notwithstanding its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That'due south fabricated America the country it has become.

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

In search of what I meant to be my dwelling house—

For I'chiliad the one who left nighttime Ireland'southward shore,

And Poland'due south manifestly, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Blackness Africa'southward strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The costless?

Who said the gratuitous? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when nosotros strike?

The millions who have nada 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 take nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's well-nigh dead today.

O, permit America be America once more—

The land that never has been still—

And yet must be—the land where every homo is free.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and hurting,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, telephone call me any ugly name yous cull—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our land once again,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology patently,

America never was America to me,

And all the same 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 land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these slap-up greenish states—

And make America once again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be 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 be heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain merely why that Dream needs to alive again.

Lines 1 - 4

Alternating rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the starting time stanza, virtually a vocal lyric. It'due south a direct call for the sometime America to be brought back to life once more, to be 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 five

About equally an bated, but highly meaning, the single line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America as an platonic just hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?

Lines vi - ix

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme design, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the United states, i of love and equality. There would be no feudal system in identify, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

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

Line 10

Some other line in parentheses, every bit if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vox - again making the indicate 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 - xiv

The third quatrain, with alternate rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Liberty just for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital 50 reinforces the thought that this could be the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her feet.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to make it manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should be a natural given, part of the fabric that keeps the states all alive, sharing the mutual air.

Lines 15 - sixteen

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

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - eighteen

In italics for special reasons, these lines, ii questions, stand for a turning signal in the poem; they are a unlike aspect of the speaker's identity. These 2 questions await dorsum, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and also wait forward.

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of not beingness able to meet the truth.

Lines xix - 24

The beginning of the sextets, six lines which express still another attribute of the speaker, who at present speaks equally and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. All the same, this vocalism also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

And note that all types of person are included: white, black, 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 young human being, any young human being no matter, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for profit'due south sake, where greed is good and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face up of commercialism 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 land to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream means only hunger and poverty.

Workers become de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated as if they are commodities or money.

Lines 39 - fifty

The longest stanza in the verse form, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of central freedoms in the get-go place. This is the cruel 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 set out for a new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More than Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, some other potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous l lines) all led to this acute betoken. A simple yet searching enquire.

Lines 52 - 61

The next ten lines explore this notion of the free. Simply the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It's as if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Just exactly who are the free?

At that place are millions with piffling or nil. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and promise count for little - all that'due south left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - lxx

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

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'southward intention and demand. Freedom for all. It's nearly a call to rising up and have back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the corruption, the pursuit of freedom is pure and strong. Those who take exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) demand to start thinking once again near buying and rights to holding.

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 concluding septet concludes that, out of the former rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. In that location remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - can be made adept again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Once more

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, three of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, i octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the folio the poem looks more like an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed by single lines and very short lines turning up in mid-stanza.

Permit's have a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and aid reinforce pregnant. In poetry, in that location are simple rhyme schemes and at that place are challenging ones. In this verse form the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional mode just gradually becomes more circuitous.

For case, take a expect at the beginning vi stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. In that location is an alternating pattern in the beginning 3 quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e ascendant:

be/free/me/me/Liberty/costless/me/free.

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

So, the starting time 16 lines are straightforward enough. After this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• However further down the line so to speak, there are nevertheless loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the get-go of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and go/free with lea/free.

Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader because it is near to full rhyme merely isn't full rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in total, they're a trivial fleck out of harmony.

As the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more than intermittent and tends to condense in sure stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza fourteen, pain/pelting/again. The poet'southward aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader'south heed and memory.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an of import function in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a similar effect to chanting, reinforcing pregnant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of energy.

From the beginning stanza - Let America/Let it be/Let it exist - to the last - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics have likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, where ideas and images are built up again and once more.

Alliteration

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

In the start 4 stanzas:

pioneer on the plainly/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/state exist a state where Liberty/slavery's 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' stop lines which encourage the reader to not break but go on directly into the next line.

For example:

Let it exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is freeastward.

and once more:

We, 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 land!

Personification

That even yet 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 Modern Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

sherercaph1941.blogspot.com

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

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