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Let America be America Again
A newly-illustrated edition of the classic poem, used extensively by John Kerry is his Presidential campaign. World-renowned poet and master of prose Langston Hughes enlightened Americans nationwide when his poem "Let America Be America Again" appeared in 1936. Today, more than half a century later, this poem's insights into American society and its dream of social justice continue to resonate powerfully among readers. In celebration of the poem's inspiring message, artist Antonio Frasconi illustrated Hughes' poem with thirty-two woodcuts in an extraordinary limited-edition artist's book, adding a rich visual dimension to the poet's verses. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., noted scholar and W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, contributed a foreword. A popular edition of this work, Let America Be America Again brings their important collaboration to a wider audience, faithfully reproducing the intricacy and subtlety of Frasconi's prints. Each coupling of image and stanza conveys Hughes'and Frasconi'sdream of justice for all with compelling force. A call to fulfill this country's potential for greatness, Let America Be America Again will touch every American who reads its pages.
Hardcover
First published August 10, 2004
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235 people want to read
About the author
Langston Hughes
647 books2,193 followersThrough poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include
Weary Blues
(1926) and
The Ways of White Folks
(1934).
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 16, 2013
I've owned this collection for years. Every other year I clean my bookshelves, come across it, open it, and re-read aloud (because the quiet reading of poetry is never fun). This collection doesn't showcase Hughes' work, but it highlights his patriotic and political pieces.
October 5, 2016
A book everyone should read!
December 17, 2023
Hughes' poetry is a recent discovery for me; I've been missing out. Favorite from this volume:
Dare
Let darkness
Gather up its roses
Cupping softness
In the hand-
Till the hard fist
Of sunshine
Dares the dark
To stand.
Dare
Let darkness
Gather up its roses
Cupping softness
In the hand-
Till the hard fist
Of sunshine
Dares the dark
To stand.
January 22, 2022
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!
Source: poets.org/
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!
Source: poets.org/
June 2, 2020
It is not surprising that the poems in this book are still relevant and resonant today. Hughes writes of failed promises, marginalization, and hope of progress- the things we are still speaking of today.
October 27, 2008
I'm not marking this down because of the poems included here; far from that, since I've been a Langston Hughes fan for a long time. It's the politics that bothers me somewhat.
Granted, I bought and first read this about four years ago, so I think I was simply being supportive in a way. But when I reread the preface, I realized the irony of promoting "unity" in America by using, probably without payment of any sort, the poems of a deceased black American to promote a white senator's run for the presidency.
But let me get off my soapbox and comment on the poems included. There are a total of nine poems included, and they all either promote the idea of racial unity or the maintenance of the unrealized American ideal (the "American dream"). The first included is the title poem, "Let America be America Again," along with a mixture of more and less formal poetry. Some of the rhymes in a couple poems seem forced (i.e., "Some Day") but, for the most part, the jazzy qualities for which Hughes is known are there. Also, the first couple poems were not new to me, but the last ones especially were poems by Hughes that I had not read before (probably because they're not frequently anthologized, and for good reason I suspect).
This can be a small insight into Hughes and his politics, but this collection is more about promoting the "inclusive vision for America" that John Kerry apparently touted during his presidential campaign four years ago.
Granted, I bought and first read this about four years ago, so I think I was simply being supportive in a way. But when I reread the preface, I realized the irony of promoting "unity" in America by using, probably without payment of any sort, the poems of a deceased black American to promote a white senator's run for the presidency.
But let me get off my soapbox and comment on the poems included. There are a total of nine poems included, and they all either promote the idea of racial unity or the maintenance of the unrealized American ideal (the "American dream"). The first included is the title poem, "Let America be America Again," along with a mixture of more and less formal poetry. Some of the rhymes in a couple poems seem forced (i.e., "Some Day") but, for the most part, the jazzy qualities for which Hughes is known are there. Also, the first couple poems were not new to me, but the last ones especially were poems by Hughes that I had not read before (probably because they're not frequently anthologized, and for good reason I suspect).
This can be a small insight into Hughes and his politics, but this collection is more about promoting the "inclusive vision for America" that John Kerry apparently touted during his presidential campaign four years ago.
February 7, 2013
Gorgeous piece of literary brilliance on the part of Mr. Hughes. I don't think I've ever enjoyed something quite so beautiful as this small volume. Of course, I'm a bit biased, as I adore Langston Hughes.
August 5, 2007
Freedom, democracy and the American Dream by one of our greatest poets.
March 2, 2011
Would be better if it wasn't prefaced by some guy who ran for President in 2004.
April 23, 2014
Absolutely beautiful. America never was the land of the free, or provided liberty and justice for all. But that does not mean it cannot still be that.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews