Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes

Andrew has a swell involvement in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the discipline. His poems are published online and in print.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Permit America Be America Again"

"Allow America Exist America Again" 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 verse form outlines the reasons why this ideal 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 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 hard hitting, the verse form does accept an optimistic ending and lights the way frontward with promise.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult period in his life when he wrote this verse form. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, merely couldn't sustain his efforts, despite poetry book publication, nearly 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 world of black literature, following his earlier piece of work in the so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Permit 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 black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America once more.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a domicile where he himself is complimentary.

Curlicue to Keep

Read More From Owlcation

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let information technology be that great strong 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, permit my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

Only opportunity is real, and life is gratis,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(In that location'south never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you lot 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 crimson human driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same onetime stupid plan

Of canis familiaris swallow dog, of mighty beat the weak.

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

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of piece of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for i'south own greed!

I am the farmer, bondservant to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to y'all all.

I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, mean—

Hungry still today despite the dream.

Browbeaten nevertheless today—O, Pioneers!

I am the homo who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'thou the one who dreamt our bones dream

In the Onetime World while still a serf of kings,

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

That even withal its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's fabricated America the country information technology has become.

O, I'm 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 Ireland's shore,

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

And torn from Black Africa'southward strand I came

To build a "homeland of the complimentary."

The free?

Who said the complimentary? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams nosotros've dreamed

And all the songs nosotros've sung

And all the hopes nosotros've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who take nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'due south nearly expressionless today.

O, allow America be America again—

The land that never has been notwithstanding—

And yet must exist—the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine—the poor human being'south, Indian's, Negro's,

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream again.

Certain, call me any ugly proper noun you choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

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

We must take dorsum our land again,

America!

O, yep, I say it patently,

America never was America to me,

And yet 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 great dark-green states—

And make America again!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Permit America Be America Again"

This whole verse form is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-constitute 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 dark times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to live once more.

Lines 1 - 4

Alternate rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the first stanza, almost a song lyric. It'southward a direct phone call for the one-time America to exist brought back to life again, to be revived.

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

Line v

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

Lines 6 - 9

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the Us, i of love and equality. There would exist no feudal arrangement in identify, no dictatorships - anybody would exist equal.

Note the contrast of the language used here. In that location is the dream and love of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and crush.

Line x

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalisation - over 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 alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upward of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the thought that this could exist the Statue of Freedom, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in 1 hand and the torch in the other. Broken bondage lie at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to brand 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 exist a natural given, part of the textile that keeps u.s.a. all alive, sharing the mutual air.

Lines 15 - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses once once again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of achieve, perhaps but has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'country of the costless.')

Farther Analysis

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'southward identity. These ii questions expect back, questioning the speaker's negativity (in parentheses) and likewise look forward.

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

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, six lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks equally and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Yet, this voice 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 field of study to the brutal contest and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

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

Lines 31 - 38

Again, use of the repeated phrase I am brings habitation the message loud and articulate 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 but hunger and poverty.

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

Lines 39 - l

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

They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from Sometime Europe, many from Africa, all gear up out for a new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

More Line Past Line Assay

Line 51

A unmarried line, some other stiff question. The previous twelve lines (the previous fifty lines) all led to this acute point. A uncomplicated yet searching inquire.

Lines 52 - 61

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

In that location are millions with little or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protestation songs and banners and hope count for little - all that'southward left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

The speaker takes a deep breath and repeats the opening line, just with more emotional input.....O, allow America be America once again. This is a plea from the center, this time more personal - ME - notwithstanding taking in many different types of people.

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

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and strong. Those who accept exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - like leeches) demand to start thinking once again about ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A brusque quatrain, a kind of summing upwards of the speaker'due south whole have on the American Dream. A direct proclamation - the Dream will manifest at some time. It has to.

Lines 80 - 86

The last septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal organisation, the people volition renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. In that location remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - can be made practiced again.

Literary Devices in Permit America Exist America Again

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

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

Permit'southward take a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce meaning. In poetry, at that place are unproblematic rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this verse form the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional manner but gradually becomes more complex.

For example, take a look at the outset 6 stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating pattern in the get-go 3 quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e dominant:

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

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

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

• However further downward the line then to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the offset of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/hateful and become/costless with lea/complimentary.

Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader considering it is almost to full rhyme but isn't total rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in total, they're a little scrap out of harmony.

Equally the verse form progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in sure stanzas, equally in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, hurting/rain/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader'southward heed and memory.

Literary Device (ii)

Anaphora

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

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Let it be - to the concluding - 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 again.

Alliteration

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

In the outset four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/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' end lines which encourage the reader to not pause merely keep directly into the next line.

For example:

Permit it exist the pioneer on the obviously

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

and once again:

We, the people, must redeem

The country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient concatenation

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

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

fromancaushre.blogspot.com

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

Share this post