Analysis Of The Poems 'Shine, Perishing Republic'

Our Founding fathers hoped for a dream where any man could come to this country and call America their home, but their dream was selective. For Minorities, women and the working class, a lot of that dream has not yet been realized and has only been a continuous nightmare, but this ever evolving country will continuously be subject to change by the voices of its inhabitants.

These themes of change for Minority ethnic groups and the 99% or the people is a common theme in both poems I analyzed in this essay. First “Shine, Perishing Republic” by Robinson

Jeffers Is focused more on an American nightmare perspective speaking of the corruption of this country and subjection of the people, but at the same time wanting there to be change to said

corruption

In the first section of this essay I will be analyzing “Shine Perishing, Republic” by Robinson Jeffers and in the second “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes.

Shine, Perishing Republic

In the poem “Shine, Perishing Republic” Corruption and Change are like two sides of a coin, like a dream and a nightmare. The first stanza sets a very negative tone “America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, /…thickening to empire, / And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops / and sighs out, and the mass hardens” The bubble in the analogy represents the voices of the common everyday people that make up this country (e.g. blue collar workers, the poor, the homeless and anyone born without financial or political privilege) that protest against the corruption in the government, that is fueled by the other side of that perspective (e.g. the financially, politically and even racially privileged). The author says “heavily thickening to empire” (line 2), when Jeffers uses the word “empire” it sets an even more subjective tone. An

“empire” that commands and subject its people, one where the freedom that our founding

“the flower fades to make / fruit, the fruit rots to make earth” This change in nature could represent the change that needs to and is happening in this great country of ours. Though with the most recent election we have all taken three steps back, change in all things is inevitable like this excerpt suggests.

In lines 11 and 12 the author says “meteors are not needed less than / mountains” In the context of the American dream and nightmare, this could be a reference to our so called democracy needing its people to exist and the people needing their government for the order it is

meant to provide. A government is meant to be there for the people and the people create government to prevent chaos. Again on (line 12) the author says “shine, perishing republic” which also happens to be the title of this poem. I believe this is meant to be read in a positive way, though the author seems pessimistic about our society and sees it in a state of decay, the evolution and change our county has gone through and continues to go through gives this phrase

“shine, perishing republic” new meaning. Meaning that there may even be hope for out decaying society. In the first 2 lines of stanza 4 “But for my children, I would have them keep their