Let America Be America Again: Key Poetic Devices

Alliteration

Alliteration (uh-LIT-ter-AY-shun) refers to a situation when two or more words that are close together begin with the same letter. Hughes uses alliteration everywhere in “Let America Be America Again,” and he does so to great rhetorical effect. Alliteration generally serves to emphasize connections between words, and Hughes uses this aspect of alliteration to reproduce iconic images and associations related to the American Dream. An early instance of this technique comes in line 3: “Let it be the pioneer on the plain.” The repeating P sounds conjure an iconic image of pioneers building a new life on the Great Plains. Similarly iconic is the notion that access to land guarantees freedom. Hughes uses alliteration to reference this notion in lines 11–12: “O, let my land be a land where Liberty / Is crowned with no false patriotic wealth.” The L sounds in the first line clearly underscore the ideological link between land and liberty, a link made more pointed by the repetition of “land.” Elsewhere in the poem Hughes uses alliteration in ways that are less targeted but no less rhetorically effective. Consider lines 27–28:

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Here, alliteration serves a more general purpose, emphasizing the greed that has corrupted America.

Anaphora

Perhaps the most notable poetic device in Hughes’s poem is a form of repetition known as anaphora (ann-AF-uh-rah). Anaphora involves the use of the same word or phrase to begin a series of linked clauses, and it appears everywhere in “Let America Be America Again.” Though many examples of this device appear in the poem, there are four main versions of this technique. First, there’s the repetition of “let it” that appears, for example, in lines 1–3:

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Second is the repetition of “I am the” that appears in lines 19–22:

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—

Third is the repetition of “Of” that appears in lines 27–30:

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!

Finally, there’s the repetition of “And all the” that appears in lines 57–59:

And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung

Each of these examples of anaphora follows a rhetorically powerful pattern of repetition. What’s key is the way this repetition develops its effectiveness through a sense of accumulation. In the case of the repeating phrase “I am the,” the speaker rouses the reader by adopting a kind of polyvocal perspective that incorporates the concerns of all of America’s underprivileged. Likewise, in the case of the passage featuring the word “Of,” the speaker rouses the reader through a catalog of crimes committed by the greedy ruling class.

Refrain

The term refrain refers to any word, phrase, line, or group of lines that gets repeated over the course of a poem. In this poem, Hughes makes use of two distinct refrains that thematically oppose one another. The first of these refrains, which gives the poem its title, relates to an idealized dream of America as a place of equality and freedom. It is this dream that the speaker references in lines 1 and 62, respectively:

Let America be America again.

O, let America be America again—

Even as the speaker calls for the return of the original dream of America, they repeatedly insist that America as it actually exists has failed to deliver on its promises. This sentiment characterizes the second refrain, which appears three times in the poem—in lines 5, 10, and 77, respectively:

(America never was America to me.)

(It never was America to me.)

America never was America to me

It’s worth noting that the first two instances of this second refrain appear as single lines in parentheses, situated among the formal quatrains that open the poem. Positioned in this way, the second refrain acts as a kind of counterpoint, one that establishes a tension between the dream of America and America as it really is. Despite their rousing call to “Let America be America again,” we are left to contemplate the likelihood of such a restoration.

Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions aren’t generally meant to be answered. Rather, writers use them to make a point or create a dramatic effect. Hughes’s poem features several rhetorical questions, which collectively serve to underscore the speaker’s frustration at America’s failure to fulfill its promise as the so-called land of the free. For example, approximately two-thirds of the way through “Let America Be America Again,” the speaker evokes the idea of America as a place where people from far-flung nations could make a home (lines 45–50):

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
. . .
To build a “homeland of the free.”

Immediately following this passage, the speaker responds to the notion of America as a “homeland of the free” with several pointed rhetorical questions (lines 51–55):

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?

In these lines, the speaker deploys a series of rhetorical questions that directly challenge the image of America as a homeland of the free. Not only would the speaker not use the word “free” to describe America, but “millions” of others would likewise avoid the word. Like many of the other key poetic devices in the poem, these rhetorical questions aim to rouse us readers and inspire us to take action.

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