Let America Be America Again Worksheet Answers

Andrew has a neat 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 "Allow America Be America Again"

"Let America Be America Over 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 poem outlines the reasons why this ideal America has gone, or never was, but could yet exist.

For the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, the reality of solar 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 blackness and white.

Whilst pessimistic and difficult striking, the poem does have an optimistic ending and lights the mode forrard 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, most 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 work in the so-called Harlem Renaissance, an upbeat black artistic motion peaking in the 1920s.

"Let America Be America Once more" 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 blackness poets such every bit Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Permit America Be America Over again

Let America exist America once more.

Allow it be the dream it used to be.

Permit it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a dwelling where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

Allow America exist the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Allow information technology be that great strong state of dear

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any human being exist crushed past one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, allow my land be 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 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 beyond the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro begetting slavery'due south scars.

I am the red man driven from the country,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding just the aforementioned old stupid plan

Of dog consume dog, of mighty trounce the weak.

I am the fellow, full of forcefulness and promise,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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

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

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for ane's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the auto.

I am the Negro, servant to yous 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 alee,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'chiliad the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while nevertheless a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream then strong, so dauntless, so truthful,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it 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 nighttime Ireland's shore,

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

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the gratuitous."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot downward when we strike?

The millions who have zip 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 take nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that'south almost dead today.

O, allow America be America once again—

The state that never has been however—

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

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

ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

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

Must bring dorsum our mighty dream again.

Sure, phone call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does non stain.

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

We must accept back our land once again,

America!

O, yeah, I say information technology plain,

America never was America to me,

And withal 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,

Nosotros, the people, must redeem

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

The mountains and the endless apparently—

All, all the stretch of these peachy green states—

And make America once more!

Line-Past-Line Analysis of "Let America Be America Again"

This whole poem is a crying out, a passionate plea for America to re-plant 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 take the reader through some dark times, through history, to explain merely why that Dream needs to alive again.

Lines 1 - iv

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

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

Line v

Most as an bated, only highly pregnant, the unmarried line in parentheses reveals that, for the speaker, America every bit an ideal merely 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 design, places stronger emphasis on the dream, the original vision people had for the USA, ane of dearest and equality. At that place would be no feudal system in place, no dictatorships - everyone would be equal.

Note the contrast of the language used here. At that place is the dream and love of those who would be equal, against those who would connive, scheme and trounce.

Line 10

Another line in parentheses, as if the speaker is quietly reasserting his inner voice - 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 - fourteen

The third quatrain, with alternating rhyme for familiarity, highlights the outer ethics - the dressing up of Liberty merely for show, 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 mitt 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 suggestion that equality could be in the air people breathe, means that equality should be a natural given, part of the fabric that keeps us all live, sharing the common air.

Lines xv - xvi

The rhyming couplet in parentheses over again repeats that, for the speaker personally, equality has been out of attain, peradventure only has never existed. Aforementioned goes for freedom. (Homeland of the costless - could be based on the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 'land of the free.')

Further Analysis

Lines 17 - 18

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

The metaphor of the veil has biblical connections (in Corinthians) alluding to a darkening of reality, of not being able to run into the truth.

Lines 19 - 24

The first of the sextets, six lines which express nevertheless some other aspect of the speaker, who now speaks equally and for, one of the oppressed, in the start person, I am. Yet, this voice too 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 fell competition and the hierarchical systems imposed upon them.

Lines 25 - thirty

The 2d sextet focuses on the young man, any swain no matter, caught upward in the industrial chaos of profit for profit'due south sake, where greed is skillful and ability is the ultimate goal. The ugly, unacceptable face of commercialism encourages but selfishness at any expense.

Lines 31 - 38

Again, use 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 servant, from the land to the fine houses of the wealthy, for many the Dream ways only hunger and poverty.

Workers get de-humanized, become mere numbers and are treated equally 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 get-go identify. 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 free in a new land.

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

More Line By Line Analysis

Line 51

A single line, another potent question. The previous twelve lines (the previous 50 lines) all led to this acute indicate. A simple yet searching enquire.

Lines 52 - 61

The side by side x lines explore this notion of the gratuitous. But the speaker seems perplexed - where did this crazy question originate? Information technology'due south as if the speaker doesn't know himself any longer, or the reasons why the question of the free should arise. Only exactly who are the gratuitous?

There are millions with petty or nothing. When labor is withdrawn and legitimate protestation arranged, the authorities annul with the bullet. Protestation songs and banners and promise count for footling - all that's 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 than personal - ME - yet taking in many unlike types of people.

In these nine lines the reader truly gets to know the speaker's intention and demand. Freedom for all. It'southward most a call to rising upward and accept back what belongs to the many and non the few.

Lines 71 - 75

No matter the abuse, the pursuit of freedom is pure and stiff. Those who have exploited the poor and sucked out their lifeblood (note the simile - similar leeches) demand to start thinking again well-nigh buying and rights to property.

Lines 76 - 79

A brusk quatrain, a kind of summing up of the speaker'due south whole accept on the American Dream. A straight declaration - the Dream will manifest at some time. It has to.

Lines 80 - 86

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

Literary Devices in Let America Exist America Again

Let America Be America Once again is an 86 line verse form split up into 17 stanzas, 3 of which are unmarried lines, 2 of which are couplets. In addition, there are 4 quatrains, 2 sextets, one octet, a twelve liner, ten liner, nine liner, quintet, and a vii liner.

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

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

Rhyme Scheme

Rhymes tend to bring familiarity and help reinforce meaning. In poesy, there are simple rhyme schemes and in that location are challenging ones. In this poem the rhyming pattern starts in a conventional way 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 alternate pattern in the first three quatrains, with the strong full vowel rhyme e dominant:

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

The full cease rhymes go out the reader in no doubt well-nigh one of the primary themes of this poem - freedom and me. A stiff pairing ensures a memorable bond.

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

• However farther down the line then to speak, at that place are still loose echoes of the familiar alternating pattern established at the offset of the poem.

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

soil/all with machine/mean and become/costless with lea/free.

Slant rhyme tends to claiming the reader because it is near to full rhyme just isn't total rhyme to the ear, every bit in soil/all. It means things aren't clicking in full, they're a little bit 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 xiv, pain/pelting/once again. The poet's aim with such concentrated rhyme is to make the words stick in the reader's heed 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 outcome to chanting, reinforcing significant and giving the feel of power and accumulation of energy.

From the first stanza - Let America/Let it be/Permit it exist - to the concluding - The land, 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 spoken language, where ideas and images are built upward 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 offset iv stanzas:

pioneer on the plain/home where he himself/dream the dreamers dreamed/land be a country 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 merely proceed straight into the next line.

For example:

Let it be the pioneer on the patently

Seeking a abode where he himself is free.

and again:

We, the people, must redeem

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

Metaphor

Tangled in that countless aboriginal concatenation

of profit, power, gain, of catch the state!

Personification

That even still 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

adamsonfivereclums.blogspot.com

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

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