Langston Hughes Poetry
...aim this dream and to get it back. “Let America Be America Again” and “I, Too” are two poems by Hughes that reflects the two ideas of dreaming and fulfilling the dream. In “Let America Be America Again,” Hughes pushes the nation towards the dream that has been on every American tongue but still never came true. This poem refers to everything that was meant to be in America, but still never was. Hughes in “Let America Be America Again” speaks about every thing that America claims to have, but does not exist in the American reality. Hughes is dreaming of a day where America becomes “the dream the dreamers dreamed.” He wants every one that is living under the American sky to share him this dream. In this poem, Hughes is not only speaking about his fellow “black brothers,” but also about all peoples and all nations that came to share the American dream of freedom and equality. The American Dream that remained just a dream to them and never became true. Hughes was telling everybody that there is a chance of fulfilling this dream; they only should use their strength, which he has no doubt that it exists, to make it happen. In Every “I,” every “my” and every “me,” Hughes includes the “poor white,” the “Negro,” the “red man,” the “immigrants” and many others who “made America” and who shares the same “dream”. Hughes swears in these peoples name “America will be” just the way they all wanted it. He wanted to include them in this oneness to push them towards unity that generates power and equality. Hughes never stopped believing that the American Dream exists. Furthermore, Hughes wanted everybody that came to America after this dream, to believe that this dream has never vanished. He also wanted to push them towards achieving this dream and transforming it into reality, for what is the use of a dream that stays covered and never shows into existence? The word “again” in the title and through out the poem makes America this dream. In one word, this “again” says that America does not exist without this dream, the American Dream. Hughes is saying with this “again” that America and the Dream are inseparable. This dream that America now – the time the poem was written – does not look not even close to it. America, according to Hughes, was not meant to be the place where “mighty crush the weak.” America was meant to be “that great strong land of love” where “equality is in the air” that everyone breath. In the second poem,...