Let America Be America Again Main Idea

Andrew has a great interest 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 Be America Once more" focuses on the idea 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 still be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to day existence makes the dream a brutal 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 upwards America, both black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and hard hitting, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the way frontwards with promise.

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, but couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poetry book publication, most notably The Weary Blues.

It was on a train journey through Low-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 earth of black literature, following his earlier piece of work in the so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic move peaking in the 1920s.

"Permit America Be America Once again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's poetry - from the expansive work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before blackness poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Permit America Be America Again

Let America exist America again.

Allow it be the dream it used to be.

Allow information technology exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a dwelling where he himself is free.

Gyre to Go along

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it exist that cracking stiff land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed past one to a higher place.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a country where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air nosotros breathe.

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

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

Say, who are you lot that mumbles in the dark?

And who are y'all 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 human 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 young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that aboriginal countless 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 have 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 motorcar.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten however today—O, Pioneers!

I am the homo who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Former World while nevertheless a serf of kings,

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

That even all the same its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That'south fabricated America the land it has become.

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

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the one who left dark Republic of ireland'south shore,

And Poland'due south apparently, and England'due south grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa'due south strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when nosotros strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we'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'southward almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been nevertheless—

And withal must be—the country where every man is free.

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

ME—

Who fabricated America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose religion and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our land over again,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology manifestly,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America volition 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 endless evidently—

All, all the stretch of these great greenish states—

And make America over again!

Line-By-Line Assay of "Let America Be America Over again"

This whole verse form is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-institute the Dream. Information technology 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 night times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - 4

Alternate rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the first stanza, almost a vocal lyric. It'south a direct phone call for the old America to be brought back to life again, to be revived.

Note the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of liberty who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a home, against all the odds.

Line five

Almost as an aside, but highly pregnant, the single line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America every bit an ideal simply hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?

Lines half-dozen - 9

The 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, 1 of love and equality. There would be no feudal organisation in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

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

Line 10

Some other line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - 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 11 - 14

The third quatrain, with alternate rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upwardly of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the thought that this could exist the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Proclamation of Independence in one mitt 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 proffer that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should be a natural given, part of the fabric that keeps us all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - sixteen

The rhyming couplet in parentheses one time again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, maybe just has never existed. Same goes for liberty. (Homeland of the costless - could be based on the Star-Spangled Imprint lyrics 'land of the gratis.')

Farther Assay

Lines 17 - 18

In italics for special reasons, these lines, two questions, represent a turning point in the poem; they are a different aspect of the speaker's identity. These two questions look back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and as well look forward.

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

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, six lines which express yet some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks every bit and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. However, this voice also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

And notation 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 - xxx

The 2nd sextet focuses on the fellow, whatsoever young human no matter, defenseless upward in the industrial chaos of profit for profit'south sake, where greed is good and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of capitalism encourages only selfishness at whatsoever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilise of the repeated phrase I am brings domicile 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 ways simply hunger and poverty.

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

Lines 39 - 50

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

They travelled to America in the promise of realizing this dream. People from Old Europe, many from Africa, all fix out for a new life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A unmarried line, another stiff question. The previous twelve lines (the previous fifty lines) all led to this acute point. A simple yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next ten lines explore this notion of the complimentary. 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 gratis should arise. Just exactly who are the free?

There are millions with little or nothing. 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's left is a barely animate dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, merely with more than emotional input.....O, let America exist America over again. This is a plea from the centre, this time more personal - ME - still taking in many different types of people.

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'due south intention and demand. Freedom for all. It'southward virtually a call to rise up and take back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the corruption, the pursuit of liberty is pure and strong. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - like leeches) need to outset thinking again about ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker'south whole take on the American Dream. A direct annunciation - the Dream will manifest at some time. It has to.

Lines 80 - 86

The concluding septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal system, the people volition renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. At that place remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - can be made good again.

Literary Devices in Permit America Be America Once more

Allow America Be America Again is an 86 line poem carve up into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, at that place are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 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 short lines turning upward in mid-stanza.

Let's have a closer wait at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assist reinforce pregnant. In poetry, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional manner but gradually becomes more complex.

For example, take a wait at the outset half-dozen stanzas:

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

This is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to follow. There is an alternate pattern in the first 3 quatrains, with the strong total vowel rhyme e ascendant:

be/gratis/me/me/Liberty/costless/me/complimentary.

The full end rhymes exit the reader in no doubt about one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

So, the first 16 lines are straightforward enough. Later on this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• Yet further down the line then to speak, in that location are however loose echoes of the familiar alternate blueprint established at the beginning of the poem.

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

soil/all with auto/mean and get/gratis with lea/free.

Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader because it is most to full rhyme only isn't total rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. Information technology ways things aren't clicking in total, they're a fiddling bit out of harmony.

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza fourteen, pain/rain/again. The poet'due south aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader'due south mind and retention.

Literary Device (two)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an important role in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a similar result to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Allow America/Let it exist/Let it be - to the concluding - The land, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics have likened them to vocal lyrics, others to parts of a political spoken communication, where ideas and images are built upwards again and again.

Alliteration

There are numerous examples of alliterative lines - when words with leading consonants are shut together - which bring texture and interest to lines and a challenge to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/abode where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a state where Liberty/slavery's scars.

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the menstruum of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Expect out for the 'open up' finish lines which encourage the reader to not pause but go along directly into the side by side line.

For case:

Permit it be the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a home where he himself is freeastward.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient concatenation

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

Personification

That even notwithstanding 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

lywermell.blogspot.com

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

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