Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? and who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

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• I can interpret primary sources related to Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice in the first half of the twentieth century.
• I can explain how laws and policy, courts, and individuals and groups contributed to or pushed back against the quest for liberty, equality, and justice for African Americans.
• I can create an argument using evidence from primary sources.
• I can analyze issues in history to help find solutions to present-day challenges.

Langston Hughes was one of the most famous writers of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural and intellectual revival of African American art in the 1920s and 1930s. Hughes is most well-known for his poetry, but he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, and essays. Hughes published his first book of poems in 1926. In the following poem, he expressed both the “American Dream” of liberty and equal opportunity and the reality of the hardships and inequality faced by African Americans.

Source Link: https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again

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.

. . .

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!

Comprehension and Analysis Questions

1. Why does Hughes state in the second stanza, “There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free’”?
2. How does Hughes end the poem?

11 Feb 2014

by dasuberkaty in Uncategorized

by Langston Hughes

______________________________________________

The American Illusion

Langston Hughes’ poem, Let America Be America Again, while at first appears to be a plea for the return of the proverbial American dream, is actually a cynical account of the cruel realities faced by those who occupy the lowest rungs of American society, to whom this dream never applied. Through his provocative words, intensified by his use of imagery, and anaphora the audience is sent on an emotional journey through the lives the American dream has left behind.

Hughes begins the poem with the general idea of the American dream: a land for pioneers, where “opportunity is real…life is free, and equality is in the air we breathe” (13-14). Each notion of the American illusion is immediately rebutted by an unknown voice providing another insight into the reality of attaining this fantasy: “There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom is this homeland of the free” (15-16).

The speaker demands to know who challenges these long-held beliefs, “who are you that mumbles in the dark… and draws your veil across the stars?” (17-18) “[I]n the dark” and “veil” are metaphors for those who society usually overlook. Hughes uses powerful imagery as he describes the most ostracized groups in American society from which this voice derives: the poor white man “fooled and pushed apart”, the black man “bearing slavery’s scars”, the red man “driven from his land”, and the immigrant “clutching” onto hope (19-22).  He uses stirring metaphors, “slavery’s scars”, to relay the image of suffering experienced by these forgotten souls.

The stanza ends with a striking picture of a poor immigrant who struggles to make it to America for an opportunity at a better life, only to meet the same cruel, “dog eat dog” world that he had hoped to escape (22-24). Hughes uses anaphora, “I am the poor white…I am the Negro”, to force the reader to step into these characters’ shoes and give the reader a perspective into a new truth (19-20). Where is the American dream for the “red man” who cultivated the land for centuries only to have it torn away by foreign greed?  Where is the dream for the “Negro”, born into enslavement, never having the opportunity to taste freedom?

The next stanza addresses the fallacies of capitalism. America, rather than a land of opportunity, is a land of greed, where the strong consume the weak and the young are encouraged to “own everything for one’s own greed” (30). Those who gain power and wealth do so by manipulating the working class. Hughes again uses anaphora, “I am the farmer”, to help the reader identify with these individuals (31). The farmer is indentured to the earth; the factory worker is a slave to his employer, “bartered” like a piece of equipment (31-32, 38). They toil endlessly to make ends meet only to find a never ending chain of overwhelming expenses making it virtually impossible for them to rise in social or economic status.

Though these people never had the opportunity to experience the America dream come to fruition, they still believed in the core principles. “I’m the man who never got ahead…yet I am the one who dreamt our basic dream” (37, 39). Hughes uses alliteration, “so strong, so brave, so true” to give more impact to these words and thereby appeal to the emotions of the reader (41). The reader’s heart fills with the desperation and determination of these pioneers of hope.

Though Hughes’ vivid imagery, “Ireland’s dark shore”, “England’s grassy lea”, “Black Africa’s strand”, the reader pictures the variety of people from vastly different backgrounds and homelands coming together, willingly or not, into this veritable melting pot; each on facing his or her own unique struggles (47-49). “[T]orn from Black Africa’s strand….to build a “homeland of the free” creates a powerful visual of Africans being torn away from their homeland by greedy slaveholders to build a country living under the pretense of freedom and equality (49). Throughout this poem, “homeland of the free” is always in quotations, meaning this is not the opinion of the writer (16,50). Rather, this idea of a “homeland of the free’ is a false narrative perpetuated by those who would deny people their basic human rights in the pursuit of financial power.

Although, the majority of this poem seems to have a bleak outlook on American society, towards the end of the poem the tone takes an optimistic change: “let America be America again, the land it never has been yet..[a]nd yet must be” (62-63). Although American’s have been living under this facade of freedom and equality for centuries it doesn’t mean that the future fulfillment of this dream is impossible. After all, the pursuit of freedom isn’t just an American aspiration but  is innate to all humans. Every person has the desire and right to control their own destiny. Each human is “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights [to] life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson).