How Many Stanzas Are There in Let America Be America Again

Andrew has a smashing involvement in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the field of study. His poems are published online and in impress.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes And A Summary of "Let America Exist 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 platonic 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 black and white.

Whilst pessimistic and hard hitting, the poem does have an optimistic catastrophe and lights the fashion frontwards with hope.

Langston Hughes was going through a difficult menstruum 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, near notably The Weary Blues.

It was on a train journeying 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 piece of work in the so-chosen Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic movement peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Exist America Once more" reflects the many influences in Hughes's poesy - from the expansive work of Whitman to street language, from jazz rhythm to the steady iambic lines of before black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Let America Exist America Again

Let America exist America again.

Allow information technology be the dream it used to be.

Let information technology be the pioneer on the manifestly

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

Whorl to Go along

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(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed past 1 above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, allow my land exist a land where Freedom

Is crowned with no fake patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is existent, 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 free.")

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 begetting slavery'southward scars.

I am the cherry man driven from the state,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the aforementioned sometime stupid plan

Of canis familiaris eat domestic dog, of mighty beat out the weak.

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

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

Of grab the golden! Of catch the means 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 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 1 who dreamt our basic dream

In the Onetime Globe while still a serf of kings,

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

That even nevertheless its mighty daring sings

In every brick and rock, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land information technology has become.

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

In search of what I meant to exist my home—

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

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

And torn from Black Africa'south 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 downwards when nosotros strike?

The millions who have nothing 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 have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'south nearly expressionless today.

O, let America be America once more—

The land that never has been yet—

And notwithstanding must be—the land where every human being is free.

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and claret, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream once more.

Sure, call me whatsoever ugly proper name you choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

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

Nosotros must take back our land once more,

America!

O, yes, I say information technology plain,

America never was America to me,

And however 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 country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the countless plain—

All, all the stretch of these dandy green states—

And make America once more!

Line-By-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Over 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 oral communication, to freedom and equality. To enable that plea to exist heard and felt, the speaker has to take the reader through some night times, through history, to explain just why that Dream needs to live again.

Lines 1 - iv

Alternating rhyme, repetition and ingemination are all at play in this the outset stanza, nearly a vocal lyric. It's a direct telephone call for the old America to exist brought back to life once more, to be revived.

Note the mention of the pioneer, those showtime seekers of liberty who with tremendous volition and effort established themselves a domicile, 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 ideal just hasn't happened. For him, this romantic notion of the American Dream never has been. Why is that?

Lines half-dozen - nine

The second lyrical quatrain, with similar rhyme design, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the U.s.a., ane of love and equality. In that location would exist no feudal system in identify, no dictatorships - anybody would be equal.

Note the dissimilarity of the language used here. In that location is the dream and dear of those who would exist equal, against those who would connive, scheme and beat out.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - again making the signal 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 up of Liberty only for bear witness, 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 Announcement of Independence in one manus and the torch in the other. Broken chains lie at her feet.

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

Lines xv - 16

The rhyming couplet in parentheses once again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of reach, maybe just has never existed. Aforementioned goes for freedom. (Homeland of the free - could be based on the Star-Spangled Imprint lyrics 'land of the costless.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

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

Lines 19 - 24

The commencement of the sextets, six lines which express yet another aspect of the speaker, who at present speaks as and for, one of the oppressed, in the first person, I am. Still, this voice also expresses the commonage, articulating a mass sentiment.

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

Lines 25 - thirty

The second sextet focuses on the young man, whatsoever boyfriend no matter, caught upwards in the industrial chaos of profit for turn a profit's sake, where greed is adept and power is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of capitalism encourages only selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, utilise of the repeated phrase I am brings home the bulletin loud and clear in this octet: the system 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 simply 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 primal freedoms in the showtime place. This is the savage irony. Those fleeing poverty, war and oppression; those forced to exit their native lands, had this dream inside, a dream of being truly gratis in a new country.

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

More than Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A unmarried line, another strong question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute point. A simple nonetheless 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 every bit if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the costless should arise. Just exactly who are the free?

There are millions with little or nix. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protest arranged, the regime counteract 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 jiff and repeats the opening line, only with more emotional input.....O, allow 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 nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Freedom for all. Information technology'south almost a call to rising up and take back what belongs to the many and not the few.

Lines 71 - 75

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

Lines 76 - 79

A curt quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker'southward whole take on the American Dream. A direct declaration - the Dream will manifest at some time. It has to.

Lines eighty - 86

The final septet concludes that, out of the former rotten, criminal system, the people will renew and refresh and rebuild something wholesome and sustainable. There remains hope that the cherished ideal - America - can exist made good once more.

Literary Devices in Allow America Be America Again

Permit America Be America Once again is an 86 line poem split into 17 stanzas, three of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, 1 octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, 9 liner, quintet, and a seven liner.

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

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

Rhyme Scheme

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

For instance, take a look at the kickoff 6 stanzas:

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

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

be/free/me/me/Liberty/gratis/me/free.

The full end rhymes leave the reader in no doubt about i of the main themes of this poem - freedom and me. A strong pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• All the same further down the line so to speak, there are still loose echoes of the familiar alternate design established at the beginning of the verse form.

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

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

Slant rhyme tends to claiming the reader because information technology is almost 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 scrap out of harmony.

Equally the poem progresses, rhyme becomes more intermittent and tends to condense in certain stanzas, every bit in stanza 13, pay/today and stanza xiv, pain/rain/over again. The poet'southward aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's listen and retentivity.

Literary Device (2)

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 significant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of free energy.

From the get-go stanza - Let America/Allow it be/Let it exist - to the last - The state, 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 claiming to the reader.

In the first four stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/abode where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be 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. Wait out for the 'open up' end lines which encourage the reader to not pause merely go on directly into the adjacent line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is freeast.

and again:

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that endless aboriginal chain

of turn a profit, power, proceeds, of take hold of the land!

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 Modernistic Poems, Ivan Dee, Joseph Parisi, 2005

© 2022 Andrew Spacey

elliswithaticking.blogspot.com

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

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