Poetry\u00a0can elicit great emotions and force the reader to analyse, infer, and stretch the imagination. \u00a0Robert Frost once stated that, “a poem starts with a lump in the throat” and William Wordsworth said, “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” Used as a means to spur resistance or protest, or as a call to action, poetry can serve as an avenue to reach readers of all ages and all groups.<\/p>\n
I, TOO, SING AMERICA<\/strong><\/p>\n I, too, sing America.<\/p>\n I am the darker brother. Tomorrow, Besides, I, too, am America.<\/p>\n LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN<\/strong><\/p>\n Let America be America again. (America never was America to me.)<\/p>\n Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed\u00a0\u2014 (It never was America to me.)<\/p>\n O, let my land be a land where Liberty (There’s never been equality for me, Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the young man, full of strength and hope, I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream The free?<\/p>\n Who said the free? Not me? O, let America be America again\u00a0\u2014 Sure, call me any ugly name you choose\u00a0\u2014 O, yes, Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, Reprinting of a few poems by Langston Hughes:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.crmvet.org\/poetry\/fhughes.htm<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Poetry\u00a0can elicit great emotions and force the reader to analyse, infer, and stretch the imagination. \u00a0Robert Frost once stated that, “a poem starts with a lump in the throat” and William Wordsworth said, “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” Used as a… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":33,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions\/828"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharonroffman.com\/prinzproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey send me to eat in the kitchen
\nWhen company comes,
\nBut I laugh,
\nAnd eat well,
\nAnd grow strong.<\/p>\n
\nI’ll be at the table
\nWhen company comes.
\nNobody’ll dare
\nSay to me,
\n“Eat in the kitchen,”
\nThen.<\/p>\n
\nThey’ll see how beautiful I am
\nAnd be ashamed–<\/p>\n
\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
\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
\nIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
\nBut opportunity is real, and life is free,
\nEquality is in the air we breathe.<\/p>\n
\nNor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)<\/p>\n
\nAnd who are you that draws your veil across the stars?<\/p>\n
\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\u00a0\u2014
\nAnd finding only the same old stupid plan
\nOf dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.<\/p>\n
\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
\nI am the worker sold to the machine.
\nI am the Negro, servant to you all.
\nI am the people, humble, hungry, mean\u00a0\u2014
\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
\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\u00a0\u2014
\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
\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\u00a0\u2014
\nExcept the dream that’s almost dead today.<\/p>\n
\nThe land that never has been yet\u00a0\u2014
\nAnd yet must be–the land where every man is free.
\nThe land that’s mine\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME\u00a0\u2014
\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
\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
\nI say it plain,
\nAmerica never was America to me,
\nAnd yet I swear this oath\u00a0\u2014
\nAmerica will be!<\/p>\n
\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\u00a0\u2014
\nAll, all the stretch of these great green states\u00a0\u2014
\nAnd make America again!<\/p>\n