Gridlock

"Let America Be America Again" Vendler Grid

Meaning	America has never been truly the land of equality, prosper and freedom, but one full of oppression, discrimination, and injustices.
Antecedent Scenario	Basically America's not so clean past history
Structural Parts	A very large part of the author's structure in his poem is the use of anaphora's to emphasize his opinion of our America. And also just like every other poem similes and metaphors play an immense part of the author's structure.
Climax	The climax is reached in the 12th  stanza in which the author questions who was the one to say America was the land of the free.
Other Parts	The beginning of the poem is where the narrator asks what happened to the America of before free and equal but with his conscious repeating it was never free for him. After this point the narrator addresses this conscious voice that states itself basically as all the discrimination and inequality of America. After the climax is reached he ends with that although America was never what it thought it was to be, it can and will be achieved.

Skeleton	The narrator after speaking of the good old America of past is retorted by what I believe is his own subconsciousness stating that America has never been great. His subconscious explains this with a wide group of demographics including immigrants, whites, blacks, and indians. Though in the end the his mood changes to one of confidence, in how he believes America will be great.
Content Genre- games	I would say this is a reflective poem. My reasoning for this is that the narrator takes an idea that is taken by fact or agreed on by many and then counters the statement with examples that prove it wrong. So in the poem the land of the freedom and equality, is actually one full of oppression and inequality since its founding such as slavery, taking the land of natives, discrimination of immigrant, and blue collar workers.
Tone	cynical
Agency
Roads Not Taken	I could see this poem as its inverse with the narrator stating it is corrupt, and his subconscious retorting with all the reasons why it is not, but it wouldn't be as popular to the overall public.
Speech Acts	The poem has certain lines where the narrator addresses the reader like "The free? Who said the free?  Not me?", that allow the author to connect his point of view with the reader by interacting with him directly.
Outer and Inner Structural Forms	The poem is very lengthy and uses repitition in the form of many anaphoras to form a parrallel structure. The poem also addresses the reader directly through retorical questions that the author answers quickly.
Imagination	there is not much fictional imagination in this poem, but more of facts that are used in analysis of a statement.