Langston Hughes <\/p>\n
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Let America be America again.
\nLet it be the dream it used to be.
\nLet it be the pioneer on the plain
\nSeeking a home where he himself is free.<\/p>\n
(America never was America to me.)<\/p>\n
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
\nLet it be that great strong land of love
\nWhere never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
\nThat any man be crushed by one above.<\/p>\n
(It never was America to me.)<\/p>\n
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
\nIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
\nBut opportunity is real, and life is free,
\nEquality is in the air we breathe.<\/p>\n
(There’s never been equality for me,
\nNor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)<\/p>\n
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
\nAnd who are you that draws your veil across the stars?<\/p>\n
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
\nI am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
\nI am the red man driven from the land,
\nI am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
\nAnd finding only the same old stupid plan
\nOf dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.<\/p>\n
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
\nTangled in that ancient endless chain
\nOf profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
\nOf grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
\nOf work the men! Of take the pay!
\nOf owning everything for one’s own greed!<\/p>\n
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
\nI am the worker sold to the machine.
\nI am the Negro, servant to you all.
\nI am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
\nHungry yet today despite the dream.
\nBeaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
\nI am the man who never got ahead,
\nThe poorest worker bartered through the years.<\/p>\n
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
\nIn the Old World while still a serf of kings,
\nWho dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
\nThat even yet its mighty daring sings
\nIn every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
\nThat’s made America the land it has become.
\nO, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
\nIn search of what I meant to be my home–
\nFor I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
\nAnd Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
\nAnd torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
\nTo build a “homeland of the free.”<\/p>\n
The free?<\/p>\n
Who said the free? Not me?
\nSurely not me? The millions on relief today?
\nThe millions shot down when we strike?
\nThe millions who have nothing for our pay?
\nFor all the dreams we’ve dreamed
\nAnd all the songs we’ve sung
\nAnd all the hopes we’ve held
\nAnd all the flags we’ve hung,
\nThe millions who have nothing for our pay–
\nExcept the dream that’s almost dead today.<\/p>\n
O, let America be America again–
\nThe land that never has been yet–
\nAnd yet must be–the land where every man is free.
\nThe land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
\nWho made America,
\nWhose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
\nWhose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
\nMust bring back our mighty dream again.<\/p>\n
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
\nThe steel of freedom does not stain.
\nFrom those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
\nWe must take back our land again,
\nAmerica!<\/p>\n
O, yes,
\nI say it plain,
\nAmerica never was America to me,
\nAnd yet I swear this oath–
\nAmerica will be!<\/p>\n
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
\nThe rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
\nWe, the people, must redeem
\nThe land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
\nThe mountains and the endless plain–
\nAll, all the stretch of these great green states–
\nAnd make America again!<\/p>\n
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes<\/a>, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Langston Hughes ——————————————————————————– 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 … Continue reading
\nCopyright ? 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"