Let America Be America Again Rhyme Scheme

Andrew has a swell 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 Exist 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 verse form 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 day to day existence makes the dream a brutal illusion. The verse form 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 striking, the verse form does accept an optimistic ending and lights the mode forward with hope.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult menses in his life when he wrote this verse form. He knew he wanted to earn a living through writing, just couldn't sustain his efforts, despite verse book publication, most notably The Weary Dejection.

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 go a noted if controversial figure in the world of black literature, following his earlier work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat blackness artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America Over again" reflects the many influences in Hughes's 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.

Permit America Be America Again

Allow America be America once again.

Allow it exist the dream it used to be.

Permit information technology be the pioneer on the evidently

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—

Permit it be that bully potent country of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That whatever man be crushed by i higher up.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my state be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

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

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil beyond 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 promise I seek—

And finding but the aforementioned old stupid programme

Of dog swallow dog, of mighty crush the weak.

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

Tangled in that ancient countless chain

Of profit, ability, gain, of take hold of the land!

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

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

Of owning everything for one'due south 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, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the i who dreamt our basic dream

In the Former Earth while still a serf of kings,

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

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's fabricated America the land 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's plain, and England'south grassy lea,

And torn from Blackness Africa'due south strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The complimentary?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot downwardly when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams nosotros've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags nosotros've hung,

The millions who have zero for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And withal must be—the state where every man is complimentary.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, telephone call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

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

We must take back our state once again,

America!

O, yes, I say it patently,

America never was America to me,

And nevertheless 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 smashing green states—

And make America 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, 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 simply why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - 4

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

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

Line 5

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

Lines vi - 9

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme pattern, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, one of love and equality. There would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - anybody would be equal.

Annotation the dissimilarity 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 x

Some other line in parentheses, every bit if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner vox - 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 to the lowest degree.

Lines 11 - 14

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ideals - the dressing up of Liberty merely for show, which is phoney patriotism. The capital L reinforces the idea that this could exist the Statue of Liberty, the famous icon, based on a goddess, who holds the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the torch in the other. Broken bondage lie at her anxiety.

The plea continues, to make the dream possible, to make it manifest in opportunity and equality, for all. The suggestion that equality could be in the air people exhale, ways 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 once more 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 exist based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'land 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 different aspect of the speaker'southward identity. These two questions wait back, questioning the speaker'southward negativity (in parentheses) and also look frontwards.

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 another aspect of the speaker, who now speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Nevertheless, this vox 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 area to the fell competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - 30

The 2nd sextet focuses on the fellow, whatsoever beau no matter, caught upwards in the industrial chaos of profit for profit's sake, where greed is good and ability is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of capitalism encourages but selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilise of the repeated phrase I am brings dwelling house the message loud and clear in this octet: the arrangement is cruellest to those who are poorest. From the farmer to the servant, from the country 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 commodities or coin.

Lines 39 - 50

The longest stanza in the poem, 12 lines, concentrates on the history of those immigrants who dreamt of key freedoms in the first identify. 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 being truly free in a new state.

They travelled to America in the hope of realizing this dream. People from Former Europe, many from Africa, all set out for a new life, freedom 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 yet searching ask.

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 as if the speaker doesn't know himself whatsoever longer, or the reasons why the question of the costless should arise. Just exactly who are the gratis?

There are millions with niggling or null. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest bundled, the authorities counteract with the bullet. Protest songs and banners and hope count for little - all that'south left is a barely breathing dream.

Lines 62 - 70

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 different types of people.

In these 9 lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Freedom for all. It'due south almost a call to rise up and take dorsum what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No thing the corruption, the pursuit of freedom is pure and strong. Those who take exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (annotation the simile - like leeches) demand to first thinking again about ownership and rights to belongings.

Lines 76 - 79

A short quatrain, a kind of summing upward of the speaker's whole accept on the American Dream. A direct declaration - the Dream will manifest at some time. Information technology has to.

Lines 80 - 86

The last septet concludes that, out of the old rotten, criminal arrangement, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains hope that the cherished platonic - America - can be made good again.

Literary Devices in Let America Be America Again

Let America Be America Again is an 86 line poem separate into 17 stanzas, iii of which are unmarried lines, ii of which are couplets. In add-on, there are iv quatrains, 2 sextets, ane octet, a twelve liner, x liner, nine liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

The layout is quite unusual. On the page the poem looks more than like an extended vocal lyric, with quatrains followed by single lines and very brusk lines turning upwardly in mid-stanza.

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

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and aid reinforce meaning. In poesy, there are simple rhyme schemes and there are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming design starts in a conventional way but gradually becomes more circuitous.

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

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

This is relatively easy to follow. There is an alternating blueprint in the first 3 quatrains, with the stiff full vowel rhyme east ascendant:

be/free/me/me/Liberty/gratuitous/me/free.

The total end rhymes leave the reader in no doubt virtually one of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bail.

And so, the beginning 16 lines are straightforward enough. Afterwards this the rhyme scheme gradually loses its regular pattern and becomes stretched.

• Withal farther down the line so to speak, at that place are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the outset of the poem.

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

soil/all with auto/hateful and become/costless with lea/free.

Slant rhyme tends to challenge the reader because information technology is most to total rhyme but isn't full rhyme to the ear, as in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in full, they're a lilliputian 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/pelting/again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's listen and retention.

Literary Device (ii)

Anaphora

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

From the kickoff stanza - Permit America/Permit it exist/Let it be - to the last - 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 voice communication, where ideas and images are built upwardly once again and over 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 first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a country 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. Wait out for the 'open up' stop lines which encourage the reader to not suspension but proceed directly into the next line.

For instance:

Let information technology be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is fredue east.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless ancient chain

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

Personification

That even withal 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 Mod Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2017 Andrew Spacey

brayhicassele67.blogspot.com

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

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