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Let america be america again langston hughes essay
Let america be america again langston hughes essay
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“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.” In the poem “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes, the reader here’s from two different speakers, and how they both seperately want America to change. One of the speakers wants America to go back to what it was before, while the other responds in small comments, building up to say the quote you read at the beginning. In the poem “Let America Be America Again” the author has two separate speakers with contradicting thoughts, the author relates to problems that were happening in the real world, and how the author’s rhyme scheme is a vital component to how this poem reads.
Langston Hughes he feel negative about the America. He make this poem sound very emotional for the read people. In the poem he alway repeat “I never was America to me”. He wants his land be a liberty, opportunity and equality for his land he live in. But he has never experienced freedom in America.
In ‘Let America be America Again’ published in 1936, he calls for America to be known for the people that helped to create what it is today, rather than to be known for those that benefit from the people that made America what it is. The first three stanzas, read as though it is a speech that the speaker is reading aloud. This is shown through the minimal use of enjambment in the first stanza and the repetition of the verb ‘let’ at the beginning of most lines in the first stanza, for example, ‘Let it be the dream it used to be| Let it be the pioneer on the plain.’ However, between these first three stanza’s, Hughes writes the speakers inner thoughts in parentheses saying, ‘America never was America to me’ and ‘It never was America to me’, splitting the poem into two sections of the speaker’s mind. He speaks of America as ideals in his speech, to mirror the intrigue of the American Dream that was sold to many, saying ‘opportunity is real and life is free, ‘Equality is in the air we breathe.’
“Let america be the dream the dreamer dreamed --let it be that great ,strong land of love”, said Langston Hughes. Langston hughes and Walt Whitman both want this for america, they want them to live the american dream, and it to be how they imagined it to be. Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman were born in different years, so they have different perspectives about america in their times. In the poems” I hear america singing” and “Let America Be America Again” both have many different aspects and similarities. These two poems have many similarities.
Langston Hughes’ poem Let America be America Again is a profound article of work from mid-1930’s America. Hughes begins by declaring a wish for America to go back and become what it once was, a land where people from across the world would migrate to, searching for a home that they could be free in. Hughes longs for the return of a country where dreams could flourish, instead of remaining unfulfilled. Yet, he states throughout the poem that America was never America to him. This showcases how dreams never stood a chance for African-Americans like Hughes, where, in this time, there was still segregation and little hope for citizens like him.
America Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” is the poem that I have chosen to write about. Out of the poems I read it is the one that struck a chord with me on a very deep level. This poem speaks about how to many America is synonymous with freedom, often times forgetting that for some America was never that. I am proud to be an American, but,I often times forget how many people's lives, freedom, and rights were trampled in the making of this great nation.
In American poetry, Langston Hughes’s “I, Too Sing America” and Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” are significant pieces that delve into the core of America from unique yet interrelated perspectives. Both poets provide profound reflections on America’s essence, touching upon themes such as inclusivity, identity, and the American Dream. This essay will carefully analyze and place these side by side, or, in other words, appose these poems, emphasizing both their commonalities and lack of similarities, with the aim of synthesizing insights to enrich our comprehension of American identity. Similarities:.. Both Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman depict America as a nation characterized by its diversity and unity, celebrating the multitude of voices and experiences that contribute to its identity. Meaning, the two poets offer contrasting yet complementary characterizations of America.
Poetry, perhaps more than other genre of writing, often sparks controversy and discussion. Authors Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes are two authors in American Literature whose poetry is both debated and praised by critics. "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes have sparked many discussions on their controversial content. Walt Whitman was the first of the two authors to write, followed by Langston Hughes who was influenced by Whitman's work. While Whitman's poem, "I Hear America Singing" reflects the happiness of the American people, the poem written by Hughes takes a different approach.
The tone of Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Sing America” is determined and talks about how “tomorrow” he will do what he pleases instead of doing what his master
The first stanza starts the poem off with a proclamation, one that invokes a sense of nostalgia for a better version of America that never truly came to be. The reader is immediately introduced to the fact that the author fails to believe that America has lived up to its full potential as he utilizes the word “again.” Hughes appears to want for America to once again be the kind of nation which is defined by a sense of opportunity and freedom for all peoples and for the country to once again embody the ideal of the American dream itself. Furthermore, line 5 of the poem reads “America was never America,” this voices what many people may feel, that America's ideals of equality, liberty, and freedom don’t seem to hold true. In lines 11-12 the Hughes references the Statue of Liberty, asking for it to be crowned “with no false patriotic wealth” (Hughes 12).
Hughes begins the poem declaring, “I, too sing America. I am the darker brother” (Poets.org) indicating that singing was a part of his voice to bring freedom to African Americans. However, when another skin color visits the plantation, he was dismissed from their presence and was sent to eat in the kitchen. Hughes did not let the racial profiling get the best of him. He says, “But I laugh, eat well, and grow stronger tomorrow” (Poets.org).
Both poems are about hearing voices, but Whitman's poem is about voices being heard, while Hughes' poem is about elevating voices so that one can hear and respond to the silenced voices of the black community. (Barnet et al., 2018) Hughes's poem is about his life, while Whitman's is about people's daily activities. In Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," the writer hears the sounds of "the boatman," "the woodcutter," "the shoemaker," and even the women. Whitman says that "each singing" is unique and belongs to the people, and it is a way to show how beautiful the country is.
With the rise in the number of educated African Americans and the new migration away from the South to the North: The Harlem Renaissance emerged as a movement in which African American culture flourished exceedingly well. The movement was centralized in New York, where Langston Hughes temporarily attended Columbia University. He did not stay long though and often moved from place to place. This may have influenced his writing, but Hughes never related much of his writing to himself and his experiences. He mostly wrote to African Americans and celebrated their culture.
The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.
In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.
