Let America be America Again - Langston Hughes

  Let America be America Again

[alert-success] Let America Be America Again - Langston Hughes

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American poet Langston Hughes, who supports the rights of oppressed people, has written this poem to help these people. As he desires equality for all individuals, the poet has hope for his country. The country that provides freedom and equality to all is the original motto for travel to America, yet some forget this motto and have carried inequality with them on their journey. The speaker of this poem yearns for his ideal America, a nation he has never seen and in which everyone is free. 

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.

           The speaker is implying that the real reason individuals left their home countries and colonised America in the past was because they did not enjoy living there. Therefore, America tends to be a free land for individuals who experience oppression in their home country. However, this ideal has vanished, and today, America is also like the previous country that the then-Americans fled from due to oppression. Because people tend to lose sight of their original dreams, he expresses his longing for the America of his dreams. The speaker believes he hasn't actually seen the dream America, but he works to make it a reality—a nation of love, dreams, and moral kings or rulers. 

            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.

        All people enjoy equality and freedom in an ideal society. If one can sense equality in the air, then the nation is what the speaker had in mind as their ideal state. In a utopian society, no one is allowed to experience tyranny because everyone has access to actual opportunity and freedom, both in theory and in practise. As a result, there are no pretences, disguises, or false beliefs in the words "freedom" and "equality." The speaker has never experienced this level of independence; therefore, these things are merely a fantasy to him.

        Additionally, the speaker is speaking up for all of the oppressed groups in the country, including the impoverished white, black, red man, and immigrants, who lack the ability to speak for themselves. He also stands in for the young person whose expectations were dashed by antiquated laws, the farmer who is now a bondsman, the worker who sold his or her labour to a machine, the black person who serves everyone, the worker who makes a meagre living, the person who has only ever dreamed of the most basic of dreams, and the person who sailed to this country. The speaker doesn't simply support a small group of people; he also includes all those who are oppressed because he wants to speak to everyone who seeks freedom and equality in the land of the free.

        However, the nation is not yet free, and millions of people are suffering as a result of the inequity, which is why the speaker longs for freedom so fervently. And when he shouts out for the specific person, he is enraged at the person who is responsible for America's current predicament. The speaker exhorts everyone to join him on his path towards a free America—the America he dreams of—because he will stop at nothing to achieve freedom and equality.

Let America be America again.