Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis
The poem “Let America Be America Again” was written by the African-American poet Langston Hughes in 1935, and has become relevant again today under the Trump Administration.
He starts his poem by explaining how he wants “America be America again”, bringing similarities to mind with Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America great again”. However, Hughes meant this ironically, as after the first stanza he writes “(America never was America to me.)” The “America before” he writes about, was a country of slave masters, colonists taking and destroying Native American land for their own gain, and a country experiencing oppression of minorities. This America he speaks of in the first stanza, is only a dream: “the dreamers dreams.” Comparing these examples
He starts his poem by explaining how he wants “America be America again”, bringing similarities to mind with Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America great again”. However, Hughes meant this ironically, as after the first stanza he writes “(America never was America to me.)” The “America before” he writes about, was a country of slave masters, colonists taking and destroying Native American land for their own gain, and a country experiencing oppression of minorities. This America he speaks of in the first stanza, is only a dream: “the dreamers dreams.” Comparing these examples