I am the man who never got ahead
Posted by ESC on March 01, 2002
In Reply to: Multiple meanings posted by ESC on February 28, 2002
: : : : I'm a little confused when I look closely at the common north american expression "to get ahead". I believe it could mean one of three things. It could mean to progress in life. It could mean to rise up beyond household costs, to stay out of debt. Or it could mean to get out ahead of the pack, to outdo your neighbors or social circle. Which is the main meaning?
: : : I think it's a more modest goal than having way more than the neighbors. To me it means getting some "extra" money saved after living expenses (rent, food, etc.) are paid. If you "get ahead" you have a nest egg so you don't have to live "from paycheck to paycheck."
: : Looks as if opinions
differ on what the primary meaning is (see ESC's answer, above, and my answer,
posted separately). You might get an even greater range if you asked more people.
: : The American Heritage Dictionary gives two phrases:
: : GET AHEAD.
To be successful; attain prosperity.
: : GET AHEAD OF. To pass or surpass;
outstrip.
: It depends on a person's financial position in life. Some who is barely scraping by dreams of paying bills and having a little left over. A person who can easily pay for necessities dreams of job satisfaction, advancement, etc.
I was reading poetry last night. Strange but true. And came across this line -- "I am the man who never got ahead." It fits in nicely with this discussion. It is from a poem by Langston Hughes.
"Let America Be America Again," published in Esquire and in the International Worker Order pamphlet A New Song , pleads for fulfillment of the Dream that never was. It speaks of the freedom and equality which America boasts, but never had. It looks forward to a day when 'Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath' and America is 'that great strong land of love.' Hughes, though, is not limiting his plea to the downtrodden Negro; he includes, as well, the poor white, the Indian, the immigrant--farmer, worker, 'the people'share the Dream that has not been. The Dream still beckons."
LET AMERICA BE AMERICA
AGAIN
By Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
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 America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be
that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That
any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land
be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity
is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never
been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who
are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across
the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing
slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant
clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of
dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength
and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain,
of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of
work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I
am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I
am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry
yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man
who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm
the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who
dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring
sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America
the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search
of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And
Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand
I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free?
Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down
when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams
we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And
all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except
the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The
land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is
free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who
made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at
the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure,
call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From
those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land
again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to
me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin
of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We,
the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The
mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green
states--
And make America again!
Langston Hughes