Let America Be America Again Deductive Reasoning
Andrew has a peachy involvement 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 Exist America Over again"
"Let America Be America Again" focuses on the idea of the American dream and how, for many, attaining liberty, equality, and happiness, which the dream encapsulates, is nigh on impossible.
The speaker in the poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, merely could however be.
For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of day to 24-hour interval 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 brand upward America, both black and white.
Whilst pessimistic and hard hitting, the poem does accept an optimistic ending and lights the fashion forward with hope.
Langston Hughes was going through a hard 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 poesy book publication, near 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 go a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, post-obit his earlier work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic motion peaking in the 1920s.
"Let America Exist 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 equally Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Allow America Be America Again
Permit America be America over again.
Allow it exist the dream it used to be.
Allow it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a habitation where he himself is free.
Roll to Continue
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(America never was America to me.)
Let America exist the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great stiff state of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That whatsoever human be crushed by i in a higher place.
(It never was America to me.)
O, permit my land be a land where Freedom
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
Merely opportunity is existent, and life is free,
Equality is in the air nosotros exhale.
(There'southward never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are yous that mumbles in the night?
And who are yous 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 same old stupid programme
Of dog consume dog, of mighty beat out 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 country!
Of grab the gold! Of catch the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for 1's ain greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten nonetheless today—O, Pioneers!
I am the human being who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Withal I'1000 the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old Globe while withal a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream and so strong, and so brave, so true,
That even nonetheless its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the country it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to exist my dwelling—
For I'one thousand the one who left nighttime Republic of ireland's shore,
And Poland'south plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The gratis?
Who said the gratuitous? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have zippo for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes nosotros've held
And all the flags nosotros've hung,
The millions who take nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America exist America again—
The land that never has been all the same—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian'southward, Negro's,
ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me whatever ugly name you choose—
The steel of liberty does not stain.
From those who live similar leeches on the people's lives,
Nosotros must take back our land again,
America!
O, yeah, I say it plain,
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,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless evidently—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America once again!
Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Again"
This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-establish the Dream. It is a kind of personal hymn, a lyrical speech communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to exist heard and felt, the speaker has to accept the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain merely why that Dream needs to live over again.
Lines one - 4
Alternating rhyme, repetition and alliteration are all at play in this the get-go stanza, nigh a vocal lyric. It's a direct call for the quondam America to be brought back to life again, to be revived.
Annotation the mention of the pioneer, those first seekers of freedom who with tremendous volition and try established themselves a home, confronting all the odds.
Line 5
Almost every bit an bated, but highly significant, the single line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America as an ideal just hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?
Lines 6 - 9
The 2d lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger accent on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of dear and equality. There would be no feudal organisation in identify, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.
Note the contrast of the linguistic communication used hither. There is the dream and dear 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 voice - 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 eleven - fourteen
The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing upward of Liberty merely for evidence, which is phoney patriotism. The capital letter L reinforces the thought that this could exist the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Announcement of Independence in 1 hand and the torch in the other. Cleaved chains prevarication at her feet.
The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to make information technology manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could exist in the air people exhale, ways that equality should exist a natural given, part of the textile that keeps us all alive, sharing the common air.
Lines xv - 16
The rhyming couplet in parentheses again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, perhaps just has never existed. Aforementioned goes for liberty. (Homeland of the free - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'country of the gratis.')
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 aspect of the speaker's identity. These 2 questions look dorsum, questioning the speaker'due south negativity (in parentheses) and also look forrad.
The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of not beingness able to see the truth.
Lines 19 - 24
The first of the sextets, half dozen 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. Yet, this voice also expresses the collective, articulating a mass sentiment.
And annotation that all types of person are included: white, black, native American, the immigrant. All are subject to the savage competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.
Lines 25 - xxx
The second sextet focuses on the young homo, whatever young man no affair, caught up in the industrial chaos of turn a profit for profit'southward sake, where greed is expert and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of commercialism encourages but selfishness at any expense.
Lines 31 - 38
Once more, apply of the repeated phrase I am brings home the message loud and clear in this octet: the arrangement is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the retainer, 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 - 50
The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of cardinal freedoms in the first identify. This is the cruel irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to exit their native lands, had this dream within, a dream of being truly free in a new country.
They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from Sometime Europe, many from Africa, all set out for a new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).
More Line By Line Analysis
Line 51
A unmarried line, another potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A simple even so searching ask.
Lines 52 - 61
The side by side 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 whatsoever longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Merely exactly who are the free?
In that location are millions with little or cypher. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for fiddling - 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 center, this time more personal - ME - yet taking in many unlike types of people.
In these 9 lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker'southward intention and need. Liberty for all. It'south almost a phone call to rise up and take dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.
Lines 71 - 75
No matter the abuse, the pursuit of liberty is pure and potent. Those who accept exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - similar leeches) need to commencement thinking again nigh ownership and rights to property.
Lines 76 - 79
A short quatrain, a kind of summing upwards of the speaker's whole take on the American Dream. A direct annunciation - the Dream volition manifest at some time. It has to.
Lines 80 - 86
The terminal septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. At that place remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - can be fabricated good once again.
Literary Devices in Permit America Be America Over again
Let America Exist America Once again is an 86 line poem split into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are single lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there 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 similar an extended song lyric, with quatrains followed by unmarried lines and very brusque lines turning upwardly in mid-stanza.
Let'southward take a closer look at the literary devices:
Rhyme Scheme
Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and aid reinforce meaning. 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 circuitous.
For example, accept a expect at the first six stanzas:
- abab - (b) - cdcd - (b) - bebe - (bb)
This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating pattern in the start 3 quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme due east dominant:
be/free/me/me/Freedom/free/me/free.
The full terminate rhymes leave the reader in no dubiety about ane of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.
So, the first xvi lines are straightforward enough. Subsequently this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular design and becomes stretched.
- Notwithstanding further downwards the line so to speak, at that place are nevertheless loose echoes of the familiar alternate pattern established at the beginning of the poem.
Each of the larger stanzas contains some form of full rhyme, or total and camber rhyme:
soil/all with machine/hateful and go/free with lea/gratis.
Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader considering it is well-nigh to full rhyme but isn't total rhyme to the ear, equally in soil/all. Information technology means things aren't clicking in full, they're a trivial fleck out of harmony.
Every bit the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, as in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza 14, pain/pelting/again. The poet'due south aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's mind and memory.
Literary Device (ii)
Anaphora
Repetition plays an important part in this poem and occurs throughout. When words and phrases are repeated this has a like upshot to chanting, reinforcing meaning and giving the feel of ability and accumulation of energy.
From the first stanza - Let America/Permit it be/Permit it be - to the terminal - The country, the plants, the mines, the rivers - at that place are repeats. Some critics have likened them to song lyrics, others to parts of a political speech, where ideas and images are built up once more and again.
Ingemination
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/land exist a land where Liberty/slavery'south scars.
Enjambment
Enjambment, when a line continues without punctuation on into the next, keeping the menses of sense, occurs in several stanzas. Look out for the 'open up' end lines which encourage the reader to not interruption simply proceed straight into the next line.
For example:
Let information technology be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a dwelling house where he himself is free.
and again:
Nosotros, the people, must redeem
The country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
Metaphor
Tangled in that endless ancient chain
of profit, power, gain, of catch the land!
Personification
That fifty-fifty 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 Mod Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005
© 2017 Andrew Spacey
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Source: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Let-America-Be-America-Again-by-Langston-Hughes