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!

Analysis, meaning and summary of Langston Hughes's poem Let America Be America Again

79 Comments

  1. Azar says:

    I, a woman who’s been forced to veil myself, came across a Persian translation of this beautiful, powerful and never aging poem by a great Iranian poet, Shamloo.
    I couldn’t imagine that it was written by an American poet in 1932. This poem is more relevant now than ever, not only about America but about so many other countries.
    The Irony of history is that this poem today can refer as much to America as to Iran of today or yesterday.
    Thanks for this very interesting website.

  2. smokedsalmoned says:

    Put One More s in the U.S.A.

    To make it Soviet.

    One more s in the U.S.A.

    Oh, we’ll live to see it yet.

    Good-morning, Revolution:

    You’re the very best friend

    I ever had.

    We gonna pal around together from now on.

    Listen, Revolution,

    We’re buddies, see—

    Together,

    We can take everything:

    Factories, arsenals, houses, ships

    Railroads, forests, fields, orchards,

    Bus lines, telegraphs, radios

    (Jesus! Raise hell with radios!)

    Steel mills, coal mines, oil wells, gas,

    All the tools of production,

    (Great day in the morning!)

    Everything—

    And turn ‘em over to the people who work.

    Rule and run ‘em for us people who work.

    By Langston Hughs – communist – In 1932 he spent a long stretch in the Soviet Union, especially in the eastern parts.

  3. james newberry says:

    American gal you are not a poet a poet would not be so idiotic as to suggest for another toleave the country that they came to. Maybe if someone took your rights away you would understand but what else could any of us expect from white trash. I am sure its probably becouse you are inbred trash, you should tell your mother to stop messing with her brother and having kids by him because you are the ending result. poet you are not ignorant you are.

  4. Mark Reed says:

    I read this to a gathering on the 4th of July. This poem is more relavent now than ever. He speakes of all those who made America but have yet to realize the dream we all perceive to be America. Let America be America Again speaks directly to our time now as well as the depression era when it was written.

  5. Alexander says:

    I often introduce myself as a person of no specific ethnic or national background… calling myself a “Universal”. When asked where i’m from I usually reply “from a land yet to be discovered” so, what Hughes wrote in his poem resonates with everything that I am about. Add to this the fact that I am of African descent. I agree that this ‘nation’ of ours has been a fraud for all of its history, making grandiose claims of being a ‘melting’ pot where the profits of democratic freedom erases the divisions of race, nationality,religion, and so forth.
    Really? The ways this country has failed in profiting all of its citizens are too numerous to count whereas, the ways it has are easily counted. Things now are coming to a head; the democratic experiment is starting finally to sag under its own ponderous mass like a tower too tall with too shallow a foundation. A massive collapse is imminent and much of the world will collapse with it, unfortunately.
    I agree and reach these conclusions not merely from my own veiwpoint but from that of humanity itself being an avid student of all histories-I’ve educated myself in the histories of many nations: Rome, Greece, Russia, China, Japan, Europe, Northern AFrica, America, Canada… And every year I add more to the list. I wont stop till I can no longer read a book! Why? because I believe that the story must include all sides; not only the point of view of the Victors.
    If America today can’t be remade, remodelled, and reformed to what it should always have been, let it be recycled to create what should be!
    Question is: can a true utopia ever be as long as profit is God? Can it ever be as long as men are corrupted by power? Can it ever be as long as party loyalty holds more wieght than talent and creativity?

  6. PGLK says:

    Huges’ poem will continue to resonate until his dream of a “land where every man is free” is realized. If you cannot see the very same ills in America today that are written about in this poem from 1938, then you have not been paying attention. Does every child in this great land have access to decent heal-thcare? Is anyone going to bed hungry tonight? Can each of us truly express who we are in public without fear of reprisal?

    “Every” means both “each” and “all” and unless we can show that each of us is free: free from hunger, free from poverty, free from discrimination; then all of us are diminished. If the American experiment fails, it will be because we were afraid to root out injustice. It will happen if we are afraid to live up to our ideals.

    The voice in this poem that points out the inequality and inconsistencies in the American “dream” is not simply whining about the treatment of African-Americans. The tendency to link this poem solely to the African-American plight is a disservice to both Hughes and America. Seldom do we wish to hear that we are not living up to expectation. It is easy to marginalize the downtrodden until your “unalienable rights” are stepped on.

    This poem speaks to me of our need to work together, our wish to eradicate injustice, and our belief that what the Declaration of Independence states should be realized.

    America has problems, many of them deep-seated. She also has a great many greathearted citizens. Huges gives us a rallying cry, a call to become part of the solution. If you can’t hear his plea, perhaps you are part of the problem.

  7. PGLK says:

    Huges’ poem will continue to resonate until his dream of a “land where every man is free” is realized. If you cannot see the very same ills in America today that are written about in this poem from 1938, then you have not been paying attention. Does every child in this great land have access to decent heal-thcare? Is anyone going to bed hungry tonight? Can each of us truly express who we are in public without fear of reprisal?

    “Every” means both “each” and “all” and unless we can show that each of us is free: free from hunger, free from poverty, free from discrimination; then all of us are diminished. If the American experiment fails, it will be because we were afraid to root out injustice. It will happen if we are afraid to live up to our ideals.

    The voice in this poem that points out the inequality and inconsistencies in the American “dream” is not simply whining about the treatment of African-Americans. The tendency to link this poem solely to the African-American plight is a disservice to both Hughes and America. Seldom do we wish to hear that we are not living up to expectation. It is easy to marginalize the downtrodden until your “unalienable rights” are stepped on.

    This poem speaks to me of our need to work together, our wish to eradicate injustice, and our belief that what the Declaration of Independence states should be realized.

    America has problems, many of them deep-seated. She also has a great many greathearted citizens. Huges gives us a rallying cry, a call to become part of the solution. If you can’t hear his plea, perhaps you are part of the problem.

  8. Ray G says:

    the poem was real good and Langston Hughes is just a good poet

  9. drew d. says:

    for me being just a student looking for a poem for school.i enjoyed reading it.it showed lots of emtion and a lot of things that we DREAM about

  10. Chris J. says:

    I’ve really enjoyed this poem and I think of Langston as one of the greatest Americans of the last century. The Portion where the poet says “And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?” reminds me of a point in W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of black folk when DuBois is speaking of when he is a child and a ‘veil’ is drawn over his face, he finds out as a child that he is somehow lesser than other humans in his country and belongs to an inescapable & perpetual lower caste. His heart is broken and a bit of innocence is seemingly lost. This is the true cry of my soul as an American, I have a mixed heritage like Mr. Hughes had & perhaps that contributes to this. I see this poem as a dream of a greater America, one where college campuses are no longer cold and numbing, freedom is real, racial and caste colonial ideas are done away with, and all people are truly equal.

  11. Sarah says:

    The main idea of this poem is equality for all. And true, at the time this poem was written, America was going through a phase of intense discrimination. Looking back at those times, America has improved, but the foundation of which this country was built on, cannot and does not want to accept the success of minorities, rather white people. It is true, and admit it, white people are better off with more benefits, ex: Hurricane Katrina. The example is not the point here. Fact is Fact. White people are dominant. Those other than whites, are considered minorities and treated like minorities. Our only way to success is to pave our way through. Don’t matter whether there be snakes lashing at you on the road. Look straight forward and go towards your goal. Never give up under any circumstances. Those above you will just laugh and say, “see, i told you.” Never ever let those above you look down on you. Never work towards making people look towards you, but instead work your best, be number 1 in all you do, and eventually people will hold you in respect, benefits will come, and you in turn can help those in the situation you were in before your success began.

  12. Lilli says:

    I love how Lansgton hughes had so much emotion

  13. magazin tehniki says:

    You are the best! Im glad…

    ———-

  14. Ssndra says:

    It is as if Langston Hughes is alive today. Everything he wrote in this poem can be identified today. Look at the immirgrants who are trying to settle here today. Look at the Blacks in prison (on relief)today. It is time to turn America around and make it the country that is written in the constitution, We the people (not we, some of the people).

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  16. Asliegh says:

    This is a potent poem the diction is incredible and it still relates to today’s struggle

  17. Tido says:

    To J.D., J.P. and others, pay attention to the work not the author. Truth is truth, whether a beggar, a communist, an ex-convict or a rich man holds it. Helen Keller was a socialist, will you discredit the dedication of her spirit’s work? As long as you and I continue to put the value of self at the frontier rather than the works and potentials of our hands we will forever be self-righteous beings like the dogmatic priests and pharisees, jihad warriors and fanatics. In that case, we have nothing to learn from each other and by so doing, we have neglected the very purpose of existence.

  18. Bernardo says:

    I love this poem, it is truly inspiring and i totally agree with it, the world should be free and everyone treated fairly. good job langston

  19. NABILAH says:

    what an awesome poen i love it this poem os the best yet it describes america so well and how the people behave i dont know how people love it here so much but i dont. living in america as a muslim is so hard you experience a lot of racism and i hate it. just so that everyone out there knows NO WHERE IS PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!1

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