Let America be America again

Let America be America Again
by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(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 by one above.
(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, 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 bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways 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 one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
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 hom
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we 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's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again
The land that never has been yet
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet 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,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain
All, all the stretch of these great green states
And make America again!

In 'Let America be America Again', Hughes expresses his doubts whether true equality exists in America. When everyone believes that dreams come true in America and everyone is equal.

'But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe'

Hughes then triggers readers to rethiink the idea of opportunity for all in the next two lines where he states

(There's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

The poem questions whether the American dream ever exist for lower class American. And freedom and equality were not yet achieved for immigrants. Hughes represents not only African America in the poem, but also other minorities of the country.

The photo I found portrays two hands touching each other. From their skin colours, one may notice that they are from people of different race. I juxtapose this picture with the poem as the it symbolises the merging of the two races. If people can accept others who are different from themselves and, eventually, blend with the other, wouldn't the world be more beautiful? 
In nowadays society, discrimination is still omnipresent. From racial minorities to physical disability, from released prisoners to homosexuality, discrimination is just all around us. Why can't people just drop their bias and embrace the world?

Joy in the Woods

Joy in the Woods
by Claude McKay

There is joy in the woods just now,
The leaves are whispers of song,
And the birds make mirth on the bough
And music the whole day long,
And God! to dwell in the town
In these springlike summer days,
On my brow an unfading frown
And hate in my heart always—
A machine out of gear, aye, tired,
Yet forced to go on—for I’m hired.
Just forced to go on through fear,
For every day I must eat
And find ugly clothes to wear,
And bad shoes to hurt my feet
And a shelter for work-drugged sleep!
A mere drudge! but what can one do?
A man that’s a man cannot weep!
Suicide? A quitter? Oh, no!

But a slave should never grow tired,
Whom the masters have kindly hired.

But oh! for the woods, the flowers
Of natural, sweet perfume,
The heartening, summer showers
And the smiling shrubs in bloom,
Dust-free, dew-tinted at morn,
The fresh and life-giving air,
The billowing waves of corn
And the birds’ notes rich and clear:—

For a man-machine toil-tired
May crave beauty too—though he’s hired.

Poem Response/Commentary


People always work for worth,
but God did not create money first.
He created the sun and the earth,
and water that keeps you from thirst.
Nature comes before Adam and Eva,
but how often are we pleased about it?
Come on people, it’s better late than never,
enjoy now the beautiful bits.

Free yourself from toil and sweat,
or you will forever feel regret.


This 3-stanza poem has 30 lines in total where each stanza consists of an octet followed by a couplet. There is a regular rhyming pattern which remains ABABCDCDEE throughout the poem.

The poem depicts a workman who longs for nature but, on the other hand, cannot stay any longer to appreciate it for 'he is hired'. The persona is tough and strong with a belief that he must work, not only has to work to make ends meet, but because he is hired. This poem suggests the presence of class and inequality as the lower-class has no choice but to work for the rich. No matter how tired he is, he 'is forced to go on'; no matter how badly he wants to go into nature, he is 'forced to go'. He forbids himself from growing tired and weeping. But by the end of the poem, the persona relieves himself knowing that he has the right to enjoy beauty, even though he's hired.

The stanza that I wrote in response to 'Joy in the Woods' questions on what people are exhausting themselves for. People nowadays put much of their efforts in making money for better living condition. However, most of us ignore the beauty of nature and do not know how to appreciate it. The stanza urges people to find time for nature and thus, will not feel regret. The stanza follows the format of the poem retaining the rhyming scheme ABABCDCDEE.