As a participant in the American history, the author feels that he was among those deceived by the empty promises of democracy and equality: "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."(Hughes) Slowly the negative tone of the poem changes and Hughes directs his views to the future of the nation, where the American Dream still remains to be fulfilled: "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..."(Hughes) There is hope that the land will become at some point the promise it was in the beginning. The beauty and strength of the American Dream is reinstated in its power and thus it becomes an ideal still to be reached.
Hughes enthusiastically declares that the true owners of the land are in fact the dispossessed: the Indians, the blacks, the poor. The poem concludes thus with a vision that the American Dream is in fact a prophecy still to be realized in the future by those who have dreamt it: "O, yes, / I say it plain, / America never was America to me, / and yet I swear this oath-- / America will be!"(Hughes) America failed in its historical mission but it can still succeed in the future precisely because it was founded by such a beautiful dream.
Hughes had often spoken about his belief in the achievement of the American democracy: "We know that America is a land of transition. And we know it is within our power to help in its further change toward a finer and better democracy than any citizen has known before. The American Negro believes in democracy....
Thus, America appears as a nation which is reborn of its own ashes, and which looks ahead to a luminous future. Vincent Harding observes that Hughes encourages its reader to believe the America is still in the making, and that it can still attain its best self at a certain point: "He encourages us to recognize that this nation is still in process still coming into being, still on its way to the fulfillment of its best self."(Harding, 181) as a Harlem Renaissance poet, Hughes militated for the rebirth of the African-American people as well as for the coming back to life of America as a nation.
Let America Be America Again is thus a poem that opens up the historical past of the country, showcasing its failings and errors. The poet however does not dwell on what was lost, but urges the readers to look to the future where the greatness of the American Dream can still be fulfilled. People should thus join their efforts and construct a viable democracy, learning from the mistakes of the past.
Works Cited
Dawahare, Anthony. "Langston Hughes' Radical Poetry and the 'End of Race'." MELUS, Vol. 23(3), 1998.
Harding, Vincent. Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement. New York: Orbis, 1990.
Hughes, Langston. "Let America Be America Again." The Academy of the American Poets. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609,Mar. 23, 2008
Presley, James. "On 'Let America Be America Again.'" Modern American Poetry. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/america.htm. Mar. 23, 2008.
