Demonstrate Imagery in Let America Be America Again

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

Langston Hughes

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

"Let America Be 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, simply could still exist.

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 black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult hitting, the poem 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, but couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse book publication, most notably The Weary Blues.

It was on a railroad train journey through Depression-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 world of black literature, following his earlier work in the then-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic move peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America 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 earlier black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America again.

Let it exist the dream information technology used to exist.

Allow it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that nifty strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed past i above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land exist a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is gratis,

Equality is in the air we exhale.

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

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

Say, who are y'all that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you lot that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed autonomously,

I am the Negro bearing slavery'southward scars.

I am the cerise human being driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same quondam stupid plan

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

I am the beau, full of forcefulness and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the gold! Of grab the means of satisfying demand!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for i'southward own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the auto.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, hateful—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten even so today—O, Pioneers!

I am the homo who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Withal I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Quondam World while notwithstanding a serf of kings,

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

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That'due south made America the land it has become.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early on seas

In search of what I meant to exist my home—

For I'm the one who left night Republic of ireland's shore,

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

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the costless."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely non 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 we've dreamed

And all the songs nosotros've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags nosotros've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'due south near expressionless today.

O, let America be America over again—

The land that never has been yet—

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

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and hurting,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me whatever ugly name you cull—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take dorsum our land once again,

America!

O, yes, I say it apparently,

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,

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

The mountains and the endless evidently—

All, all the stretch of these bang-up light-green states—

And make America again!

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

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-found the Dream. Information technology is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech, to liberty and equality. To enable that plea to be heard and felt, the speaker has to have the reader through some nighttime times, through history, to explicate only why that Dream needs to alive again.

Lines 1 - four

Alternating rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the outset stanza, almost a song lyric. It's a straight call for the one-time America to be brought back to life again, to be revived.

Notation 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 5

Virtually every bit an aside, but highly significant, the unmarried line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America as 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 like rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the U.s.a., i of honey and equality. There would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Note the dissimilarity of the language used here. There is the dream and dearest of those who would exist equal, against those who would connive, scheme and beat.

Line ten

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vocalisation - 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 11 - 14

The tertiary quatrain, with alternate rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing up of Liberty simply for prove, 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 paw and the torch in the other. Broken chains prevarication at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to go far manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could be in the air people exhale, means that equality should exist a natural given, part of the textile that keeps usa all alive, sharing the common air.

Lines 15 - xvi

The rhyming couplet in parentheses once more repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of achieve, possibly just has never existed. Same goes for freedom. (Homeland of the gratis - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'state of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

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

Lines 19 - 24

The showtime 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 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 roughshod competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The 2d sextet focuses on the fellow, any young man no affair, caught upwards in the industrial chaos of profit for turn a profit's sake, where greed is expert and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable confront of capitalism encourages merely selfishness at whatsoever expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilise of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling house 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 - l

The longest stanza in the verse form, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of fundamental freedoms in the start 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 beingness truly gratuitous in a new state.

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

More than Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another strong question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A simple yet searching ask.

Lines 52 - 61

The next 10 lines explore this notion of the gratuitous. But the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? It'southward every bit if the speaker doesn't know himself whatever longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Just exactly who are the costless?

There are millions with little or nada. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation bundled, the authorities annul with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for piffling - all that's left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

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

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

Lines 71 - 75

No affair 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 get-go thinking again about buying and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A curt quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker's whole take on the American Dream. A direct declaration - the Dream volition manifest at some fourth dimension. It has to.

Lines lxxx - 86

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

Literary Devices in Let America Exist America Again

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line verse form split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, two of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, ix liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

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

Rhyme Scheme

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

For example, accept a look at the commencement 6 stanzas:

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

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

exist/free/me/me/Liberty/free/me/gratis.

The total terminate rhymes leave the reader in no dubiety about 1 of the main themes of this poem - liberty and me. A stiff pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• Even so further downward the line so to speak, at that place are even so loose echoes of the familiar alternating blueprint established at the outset of the poem.

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

soil/all with car/mean and become/free with lea/free.

Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader because it is almost to full rhyme merely isn't full rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It ways things aren't clicking in full, they're a piffling bit out of harmony.

As the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more than intermittent and tends to condense in sure stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza fourteen, hurting/rain/once more. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader'southward mind and memory.

Literary Device (2)

Anaphora

Repetition plays an of import role 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 first stanza - Let America/Allow information technology be/Permit it be - to the last - The country, the plants, the mines, the rivers - there are repeats. Some critics have likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political spoken language, where ideas and images are congenital upward again and once 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 claiming to the reader.

In the start four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/state exist a land where Liberty/slavery'southward scars.

Enjambment

Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the flow of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Wait out for the 'open' end lines which encourage the reader to non pause but go along straight into the side by side line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the evidently

Seeking a home where he himself is fredue east.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

The state, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless ancient chain

of turn a profit, ability, gain, of take hold of the land!

Personification

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

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

meadowsnals1940.blogspot.com

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

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