Let America Be America Again Questions

Andrew has a not bad involvement in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject area. His poems are published online and in print.

Langston Hughes

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

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

The speaker in the poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, but could all the same be.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of solar day to day existence makes the dream a barbarous illusion. The poem explores the darker areas of life, the history of exploitation for case, and outlines the unique struggles of the poor who brand up America, both blackness and white.

Whilst pessimistic and hard 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 verse form. 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 go a noted if controversial effigy in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the and then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness creative movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Exist America Once again" reflects the many influences in Hughes'southward poesy - from the expansive 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 Exist America Once again

Let America be America over again.

Let information technology be the dream it used to exist.

Allow information technology exist the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a dwelling where he himself is gratis.

Roll to Continue

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Allow information technology be that great strong country of dearest

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man exist crushed by ane above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my state be a country where Freedom

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

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

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

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 apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the aforementioned old stupid programme

Of dog eat 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 gilded! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

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, servant to y'all all.

I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Browbeaten notwithstanding today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'k the 1 who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old Globe while still a serf of kings,

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

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the state information technology has get.

O, I'm the human who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my domicile—

For I'yard the one who left dark Ireland'southward shore,

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

And torn from Blackness Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the costless."

The free?

Who said the complimentary? Not me?

Surely non me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have cypher 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 accept nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'south almost dead today.

O, allow America be America once again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every human being is gratis.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and hurting,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose turn in the pelting,

Must bring back our mighty dream over again.

Sure, call me any ugly name yous choose—

The steel of liberty does not stain.

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

We must take dorsum our land again,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology plain,

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 dandy green states—

And make America again!

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

This whole verse form is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish 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 accept the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain only why that Dream needs to alive again.

Lines 1 - 4

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

Annotation the mention of the pioneer, those starting time seekers of freedom who with tremendous will and effort established themselves a abode, against all the odds.

Line 5

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

Lines half dozen - ix

The 2nd lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme blueprint, places stronger accent on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of dearest and equality. In that location would be no feudal organization in place, no dictatorships - anybody would be equal.

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

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, equally if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalism - once more 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 ethics - the dressing upwardly of Freedom simply for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the idea that this could be the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in one paw and the torch in the other. Broken chains prevarication at her feet.

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

Lines 15 - 16

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

Farther Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a concealment of reality, of non beingness able to encounter the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The beginning of the sextets, six lines which limited even so some other attribute of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, ane of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Still, this phonation also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.

And note that all types of person are included: white, blackness, native American, the immigrant. All are subject area to the barbarous competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The 2nd sextet focuses on the swain, any fellow no matter, caught up in the industrial chaos of profit for profit's sake, where greed is good and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face up of commercialism encourages only selfishness at whatever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Over again, utilise 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 state to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream ways only hunger and poverty.

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

Lines 39 - fifty

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

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 Line By Line Assay

Line 51

A unmarried line, some other potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this astute point. A elementary even so 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'southward equally if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Merely exactly who are the free?

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

Lines 62 - seventy

The speaker takes a deep jiff and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, let America be America again. This is a plea from the heart, 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'due south intention and demand. Freedom for all. It's almost a call to ascent up and accept 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 have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - like leeches) need to showtime thinking again virtually ownership and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing upward of the speaker'south whole have on the American Dream. A direct announcement - the Dream volition manifest at some fourth dimension. Information technology has to.

Lines lxxx - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. In that location remains promise that the cherished ideal - America - can exist fabricated good again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again

Allow America Be America Again is an 86 line poem divide into 17 stanzas, three of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In add-on, at that place are iv quatrains, ii sextets, one 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 accept a closer look at the literary devices:

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and assistance reinforce meaning. In verse, 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, accept a expect at the commencement six stanzas:

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternate pattern in the kickoff three quatrains, with the strong total vowel rhyme e dominant:

exist/gratis/me/me/Liberty/costless/me/gratuitous.

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

Then, the first 16 lines are straightforward enough. After this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular design and becomes stretched.

• All the same further downward the line and so to speak, in that location are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern 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 machine/mean and go/complimentary with lea/gratis.

Slant rhyme tends to claiming 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 full, they're a little chip out of harmony.

Every bit the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more than intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, 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 memory.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

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

From the first stanza - Permit America/Let it be/Let information technology be - to the final - 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 upwardly once 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 starting time four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/state exist a land 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 simply continue directly into the adjacent line.

For example:

Allow information technology be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is freeast.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless ancient chain

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

Personification

That even yet its mighty daring sing

in every brick and rock, 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

snyderexionnk.blogspot.com

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

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