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Hughes wrote “Let America Be America Again” in free verse, which means the poem doesn’t strictly abide by a single meter throughout. A quick glance through the poem immediately reveals a wide range of different line lengths. That said, it’s worth noting that most lines in the poem average around ten syllables, and they almost universally feature five stressed syllables. The overall meter, though variable, therefore gives a loose impression of the five-foot structure known as pentameter. As an example, consider lines 6–9:

     Let / A-mer / i-ca be / the dream / the dream- / ers dreamed—
     Let / it be / that great / strong land / of love
     Where ne- / ver kings / con-nive / nor ty- / rants scheme
     That a- / ny man / be crushed / by one / a-bove.

The first line in this quatrain contains six feet, but all the rest have five. This overall pattern gives the loose impression of iambic pentameter, since most—but not all—feet in the stanza are iambs. (Recall that an iamb consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in “to-day.”) Hughes clearly doesn’t adopt a strict version of iambic pentameter. But his reference to this classic meter amplifies the ironic formality of his language, which takes aim at the absurdly idealistic image America has of itself.

Though Hughes continues to use a loose pentameter throughout the rest of the poem, he does so with less and less irony. For one thing, as the poem continues, Hughes moves away from the more formal structure of the rhyming quatrain. Yet even as he loosens the regular rhyme scheme, he maintains a similar approximation of iambic pentameter. Consider lines 19–24 as an example:

     I am / the poor / white, fooled / and pushed / a-part,
     I am / the Ne- / gro bear- / ing sla- / ver-y’s scars
     I am / the red / man driv- / en from / the land,
     I am / the im- / mi-grant clutch- / ing the hope / I seek—
     And find- / ing on- / ly the same / old stu- / pid plan
     Of dog / eat dog, / of might- / y crush / the weak.

Once again, this passage doesn’t perfectly align with iambic pentameter. For instance, the initial foot in each of the first four lines aren’t iambs at all but trochees (stressed–unstressed). Likewise, the first line contains a spondee (stressed–stressed), and the fourth contains two anapests (unstressed–unstressed–stressed). Even so, the overall impression of the entire passage is primarily iambic. Here, though, the approximation of iambic pentameter is less ironic that it was earlier in the poem. Instead, it gives added rhetorical weight to the speaker’s devastating critique of what they see as America’s reality.

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