Analyze rhythm of Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes - Essay Example

After the first three stanzas, there is a couplet that is rhyming and after it, the rhyming scheme that is adopted in the first three stanzas changes. The poem contains the rhyming scheme of blues and jazz that is a special feature of Black poetry (Roberts and Jacobs 2007). Similarly, the words, “I am the” and many others are employed to create a rhythm in the poem. Moreover rhyming words are used in stanzas to create a rhythm with the help of rhyme such as “be and free”, “again and plain”, “love and above”, “sleek and weak”, “greed and need” and many more.

The length of stanzas and lines vary in order to put stress on some lines. After seeing the poem, the poem also appears a free verse at many points as the rhyming pattern seems somehow absent with a little rhyme absent such as: In the above-mentioned stanza, only “me” and “be” are rhyming, remaining all the stanza is deprived of a rhyming scheme. The poem uses a lot of repetitive words such as “America”, “millions”, “Whose”, “all”, “And” and many phrases such as “Let it be” and “Who are you”.

The author is unhappy about his land, America. To him, he is not allowed to get equal right for each and every field of life. Hughes writes the poem, “Let America Be America Again” from the perspective of a black man such as Whitman has written from his perspective. The tone of the poem is somewhat pessimistic as the author is not happy with the current condition of America and regards it as a changed state. Rhythm is also created because of the reiteration or recurrence of stresses and pauses.

Hughes makes use of repeated anaphora. For example, in the first lines by making use of the repeated anaphora of “Let it be”, Hughes acknowledges the fact that America is not what it should be and informs the reader with his perspective in a