Let America Be America Again

“Let America Be America Again” is a stirring, patriotic poem that draws on the celebration of America in the poetry of Walt Whitman as well as popular songs such as “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” but it also contains a stern critique of the nation it praises.

The first quatrain, with its call for the renewal of America, presents a positive view of the country, alluding to the American dream. However, it also contains a hint that at the time Hughes is writing the poem, all is not quite as it should be: “Let it be the dream it used to be” (Line 2). Something was present in the past that is now absent. Even this hint does not really prepare the reader for the blunt force of Line 5, standing as a single line on the page: “(America never was America to me).” The poet thus takes the reader from the “used to be” of Line 2 to the “never was” in Line 5. (The same pattern is presented in Lines 6-10, with greater specificity, highlighting the lack of equality and freedom.)

These opening lines might suggest that at this point, the poet, being African American, is presenting an African American speaker who is referring to the absence of racial justice in America.