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Essay about american poetry
Essay about american poetry
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Idealism in Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints a vivid word picture of a depressed America in the 1930's. To many living in America, the idealism presented as the American Dream had escaped their grasp. In this poetic expression, a speaker is allowed to voice the unsung Americans' concern of how America was intended to be, had become to them, and could aspire to be again.
Using a conversational style, the author allows the speaker and listener to interact with each other. The issue addressed is that America is not the democratic ideal of all of its people. The original speaker begins in a fairly common quatrain stanza; however, when the listener is allowed to respond, the stanzas become irregular indicating the passion felt as well as the urgency of the message. The listener's response contains the main idea of the piece, comparing the democratic ideal to the conditions of those who are victims because of race, age, or economic status. The author's careful use of alliteration in phrases such as "pushed apart" (19) and "slavery's scars" (20) emphasizes the struggles and alienation experienced by less fortunate Americans.
The speaker begins the narration by making a statement that America should return to the idealistic way it used to be: "Let it be the dream it used to be" (2). Then the narrator continues to relate nostalgically the longing for an America built on freedom and equality for all. This could be the dream of the author himself. Wagner states of the author, "Like his first masters Whitman and Sandburg, like his fellow black Toomer, and like so many other American poets of the period, Lan...
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...tion in Depression" (Ramperstad 371). Commenting on this poem and its author, Langston Hughes, Ramperstad observes, "Perhaps his finest poem of the thirties combined his will to revolution with his Whitman-like nostalgia for a vanishing America." Hughes gives us a richer insight of American idealism, American realism, and what, "America will be!" (73).
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. "Let America Be America Again." _Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing_. 4th ed. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1995. 723-24.
Rampersad, Arnold. "Langston Hughes." _Voices & Visions: the Poet in America_. Ed. Helen Vendler. New York: Random House, 1987. 352-93.
Wagner, Jean. "Langston Hughes." _Black Poets of the United States_. Trans. Kenneth Douglas. Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1973, 385-474.
Hughes, Langston. “Militant.” History is a Weapon: A Selection of the Poetry of Langston Hughes, n.d. 29 April, 2014.
Hughes, Langston “I, Too.” Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler.
One can instantly feel the emotion coming out in the first sentence; “Let America be America again.”(MLM) This clearly show that Hughes was very passionate about his country and wanted the reader to be just as well. He quickly lets the reader now that he is not talking about going back to the old traditions, but to the old ideology. Hughes explain it this way, “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed” and “…where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme that any man be crushed by on above.” (MLM) This shows his true heart because he wanted America to go back to dreaming big for a better tomorrow, but what he doesn’t want is the injustice that was so prevalent in the past. He wanted the nation to go back to that old ideology “that we are all created equal”() and should be treated as such.
Print. The. Hughes, a.k.a. Langston, a.k.a. “I, Too, Sing America.”
Let America Be America Again, written by Langston Hughes, was written to make a satirical statement about the American Dream. He uses personification, alliteration, and imagery to bring home his point that the “dream the dreamers dreamed” (Hughes ???) not only has never existed but will never truly exist for the common man. According to the speaker, assumed to be Hughes but in reality could be anyone who is hopeless and unhappy in this land where “equality is in the air we breathe” (???), that as long as there are “kings” and “tyrants” (???), the American Dream is only an unobtainable goal but is something that must be kept alive.
"A Centennial Tribute to Langston Hughes." Library System - Howard University. Howard University, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 04 Dec. 2013. The "Biography of Langston Hughes." Poemhunter.com.
Written in the 1860s, I Hear America Singing, by the American poet, Walt Whitman describes the Song of America. This classic poem glows with Whitman’s optimistic view of the American dream that appears in many of his poems. Though life in the 21st century is very different from that of the 1800s, the principles embodied in Whitman’s free-verse poem still apply to our country. Whitman’s poem was the embodiment of the American dream, the idea that you could achieve success and happiness no matter your background. Whether your song is that of the mechanic’s, the carpenter, the mason, or even the CEO at the spire of a skyscraper, your song can become a success. This is the topic of my poem. America’s song is a still a great symphony comprised of the high notes of hope, the chorus of promise and opportunity, and rhythm of tension and balance.
Hughes, Langston. “Visitors to the Black Belt”, Note on Commercial Theatre”, “Democracy”, Theme for English B” : The Norton Anthology of English Literature Gen. ed.
Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes were two great of America’s poets who believed in the American Dream. The American Dream was the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The American Dream meant everything to Whitman and Hughes during that time. Whitman’s poem was titled “I Hear America Singing’’ and Hughes poem was titled “Let America Be America Again.’’ Although Whitman and Hughes agreed that America was the land of opportunity, they had very different perspectives on who had achieved liberty and success.
Alexis de Tocqueville and Langston Hughes both have their own ideas about what America is, was, and should be. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America praises American democracy in which everyone is included. This inclusion allows for democracy that everyone can be a part of and feel like they are contributing. On the contrary, Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” depicts an excluding America that does not treat everyone equivalently. Hughes portrays America as a misrepresentation that does not uphold the ideals that it is so famous for. The two works contrast in many ways but do have some similarities. Although their ideas are different, politics is still a choice. Tocqueville describes politics as a choice that everyone should make as it benefits them all while Hughes describes politics as a choice that some do not have the power to take part in. The differing sentiments between Democracy in America and “Let America Be America Again” stem
Hughes, Langston. "Theme for English B." The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. Editor: Jay Parini. Columbia University Press, 1995. 481.
Often depicted as a melting pot, America is always being put on a pedestal by the rest of the world due to the large amounts of successful immigrants in the United States. Millions of people have packed their bags and moved to America in hopes of achieving their dreams. While some succeed, others fail and are let down by the dim reality that not everyone can achieve their goals. This essay will compare the poems, “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes and “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus to exhibit my perspective on both works. Both poems portray people’s hopes that America will be great, however, due to the different eras and the authors’ backgrounds, the poems have different meanings. Lazarus’ poem was written in the early stages of America, as it describes her cheerful
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Hughes, Langston. "Harlem." [1951] Literature. 5th ed. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28.