Ari Charles December 5, 2013 CAP English Green Harlem Renaissance Tone and Diction Essay In the poem

Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes creates contrasting tones of hopefulness and grim despair using precise diction. The poem is about Hughes reflections on the American dream, and how disillusioned he has become with such an idea, yearning instead for a more equal future. He does this primarily by narrating his perceptions of Americas virtues, using brief asides to note his true feelings. Hughes use of the clashing structure creates a powerful effect whereby both of the tones balance each other out and create a strong result. To create the first tone of hopefulness, Hughes writes Let [America] be that great strong land of love, and O, let my land be where Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath. His wish for America to be the great strong land of love directly expresses the tone of hopefulness, while Hughes wanting for Liberty [to be] crowned with no false patriotic wreath shows his desire for a fairer, freer future. For the contrasting tone of despair, however, Hughes takes a slightly different approach by utilizing the pauses between stanzas to insert his comments. He states quite plainly that America was never America to me, and that theres never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free. America was never America to Hughes because of its deplorable African-American civil rights record. By acknowledging such a simple fact, Hughes is able to create a sharp juxtaposition of tones. When he elaborates by saying that theres never been equality nor freedom, Hughes deepens the tone of despair by playing off of the countrys hypocritical attitudes, which went directly against the Framers belief that all men [were] created equal, by denying equal rights to African-Americans. This single line of poetry captures the essence of the tone of desperation, because Hughes has seen little to no

Ari Charles December 5, 2013 CAP English Green Harlem Renaissance Tone and Diction Essay progress over hundreds of years, and does not see any possible way for the status quo to improve. Langston Hughes poem Let America Be America Again is thusly a prime example of the use of proper diction to enhance the overall effect produced by a poem. In Hughes case, the contrasting tones of hopefulness and despair are only enhanced by such a profound effect, and make the poem sound good.