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I Hear America Singing Comparison

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Recommended: Introduction about American literature

Compare/Contrast paper “America was never America to me.” This quote means that the author is not just exposing the problem; he promises to contribute to the future solution. In the poems “I Hear America Singing” and “Let America be America Again” the two poets are expressing their true love for America. Walt Whitman wrote “IHAS” and Langston Hughes wrote “LABAA” . These poets both love America but the perspectives of each poem is different. In these two poems , both writers are discussing the American Dream. They both want success for America.They also want opportunities to achieve . Whitman and Hughes represent a list of individuals , but in different ways. One is talking patriotically and the other is talking frustratedly. In “I Hear America Singing” , the author mentions different people with …show more content…

“I Hear America Singing” has a free verse style. This poem was created in the mid 1800s , during a rise in immigrants and the Industrial Revolution. The author is writing about how each individual song celebrates “his” work that only “he” can fulfill effectively. You couldn’t sing on your job if you didn’t truly believe in your efforts and take pride in your work. The theme of this poem is “individual workers and liberties make America great.The purpose of Whitman’s poem is to celebrate workers and success. This poem also has a patriotic tone because of the author’s love to the country. “Let America be America Again” has a rhyming style. Hughes’ poem was created in the mid 1900s during the time of the civil rights movement. He writes about how he is feeling left out of the American Dream. “Let it be the dream it used to be,” the author says with little hope , yet it once had been an America he could believe in. The theme of this poem is individuals who feel excluded because America has failed to deliver on its promises of liberty for all. The poem’s tone is frustrated because Hughes wants everyone to be

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In the poem, “ Let America be America again”, Langston Hughes asserts that America does not live up to what it actually should be. Hughes’ tone seems to be angry and [exasperated]. He implicates the perspective of one particular group, but many people. The poem represents that many people come here with high hopes and big dreams but they are let down. He states that [prosperity] is one of the reasons that there is an economic inconsistency where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.

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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.

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Makayla Long Professor Van Epps ENGL 1102 13 February 2023 How Poetry affected America during the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Let America Be America Again” (1935) during the Harlem Renaissance period. Hughes used this poem to reveal his feelings towards the inequality in America. He used literary devices such as metaphors and repetition to show more about his theme of freedom and equality. Using these metaphors and repetition, Hughes gets his theme and feelings across in a very descriptive way.

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How has the American Dream changed from the 1920’s to now and how has the theme of the American Dream been supported by works of American Literature. We will see how the American Dream though time did not follow what the founding fathers set out for us in the declaration of independence and when they said, “The authors of the United States’ Declaration of Independence held certain truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". We will see how the American Dream suffers, what an American Dream is centered on, and how, for some, the American Dream is unattainable. In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and in "Harlem" by Langston Hughes we see the American dream depicted, as the loss and utter death of a distracted corrupt American Dream, as the love of the American dream, and as the American Dream for Blacks in a time of segregation and discrimination.

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America is well known as the land of the free and the home opportunity. Although it is said everyone is equal in every way, that has not always been the case. Langston Hughes is a poet who tried to emphasize the idea of equality among all human beings. Hughes underlined the basis of the American Dream with what is and what should be in the societal era he lived in. In hindsight he believed his poems helped others realize the injustices that all minorities had to face during this era.

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While the two authors discuss similar subject matter, there are many differences that can be identified between these two literary works. Support 1: The first of many variations is related to the structure of writing used by the authors. For example, in "I Hear America Singing" Whitman writes in a sing song style, evident in the line, "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear," while Hughes' treatment is more direct and abrasive as seen in the line, "They send me to eat in the kitchen." Further, in "I Hear America Singing," the sentences are long and flow easily into subsequent phrases, whereas "I,

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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

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Throughout the essay, Kesaya is telling the audience about her constant struggle of not feeling American. Several classmates and people have made racist jokes that have offended her and feel ashame. However, she’s realized, in the end of the essay, that she is equally important. And her grandparents have gone through a lot for her to live in the U.S. In the poem, Let America Be America Again, Langston Hudges writes about different people that have been discriminated from the American Dream and their point of view of America.

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At this time, the dream was equality and being accepted as citizens of the United States. Hughes felt that this goal of liberty and quality for African Americans was very hard to reach or match. A poem that resembles this thought well is titled “Youth”, where Hughes writes, “We have tomorrow… Bright before us… Like a flame” (Hughes 39). This poem has a lot of analysis towards the American Dream.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

In the narrative of the American Dream, there are three main steps: starting at the bottom, working hard, and gaining successful. In “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, and “A Forest Walk” from A Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Whitman, Hughes, and Hawthorne use the motif of building and work to illuminate the mainstream and marginalized viewpoints of the American Dream’s effect on society. In “I Hear America Singing,” Whitman uses kinetic imagery with gerundive verbs and the symbol of songs to enforce the belief in America’s opportunities are available to anyone who works hard and to emphasize the strong unity of the American society. In the poem, Whitman uses enumeration and lists many occupations.

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In the two poems the reader can see many examples of figurative language. In the poem, “I Hear America Singing,” Whitman

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The speaker believes, however, that one day he will no longer be asked to go into a separate room because his family will realize his true beauty, and be ashamed for not seeing it earlier. They will see that he is, too, an American. This poem begins as a quite literal description of double-consciousness: the speaker is not only viewing himself through the eyes of others, but is also describing the two-ness of his African-American identity through this lens. He views himself as American, as someone that “sings” for the same ideals as any other American, and yet he is viewed as different because of his race: “I, too, sing America. / I am the darker brother.

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By stressing that he is equal in society and it is something that people will start to realize is reinforced in the last stanza. The last stanza “I, too, am America,”(18) where the word ‘sing’ from the first stanza is changed to ‘am.’ This is a powerful way to close the poem, reinforces the greater notion that not only is he a voice in society, but he is the very essence that is part of

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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.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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