Biographical Criticism:
Let America be America
Again
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 home-- 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!
Biographical View
-The biographical approach is the idea of trying to get the reader to gain a better understanding of the
author’s work through evaluating facts from the author’s life and getting a great understanding of the author
himself.
-Through the Biographical approach, we learn that Langston Hughes was a black man
growing up in poor time where life was really unfair and unequal to blacks. So in comparing his life to the poem it shows
how America was suppose to be a symbol/dream for all those who seek freedom but the only ones who seem to be free were the
whites while Hughes and all his fellow blacks weren’t. In doing so the message that he sends is that he wants America
to be the same place where Americans gain there independences so he can gain his.
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