Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"
    Ebook31 pages20 minutes

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 28, 2016
    ISBN9781535827324
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Let America Be America Again

      Sep 1, 2020

      Let America Be America Again
      3 min read

    • Article

      Colson Whitehead

      Aug 13, 2016

      The author of The Underground Railroad, Oprah’s new book-club pick, talks about making fiction from history’s great atrocity

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tommy Orange

      Jun 13, 2018

      whose debut novel, There There, was published in June by Knopf. INTRODUCED BY Claire Vaye Watkins author of two books, including the novel Gold Fame Citrus, published by Riverhead Books in 2015. The first thing one not ices about There There, Tommy O

      4 min read

    • Article

      James Baldwin Finds New Generation Of Fans

      Feb 21, 2019

      Some three decades after his passing, Baldwin’s books endure as part of the literary canon. He channeled a love of language into his writing, choosing prose instead of sermons, following a writer's instead of a preacher's life.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Finding “A House in Taos”

      Mar 19, 2024

      Finding “A House in Taos”
      9 min read

    • Article

      Open Your Eyes, Edward James Olmos

      Jul 5, 2022

      Open Your Eyes, Edward James Olmos
      5 min read

    • Article

      Engagement, Again

      Sep 1, 2020

      By and large, political poetry—poetry responding to national or global events, poetry of “engagement” or even “witness”—was not the norm in the United States through the 20th century. When it was written and when it was read, critical reception was h

      25 min read

    • Article

      Lines Of Resistance

      Jun 1, 2016

      In her 2014 book Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine combines verse, prose, and images to create a powerful record of the black American experience. She offers many anecdotes of insult and erasure, such as when a man cuts in line at a drugsto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Escaping Samuel Johnson

      May 30, 2019

      Escaping Samuel Johnson
      9 min read

    • Article

      Native American Poetry Anthology Vibrates With Powerful Voices

      Sep 16, 2020

      U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo serves as lead editor of this new collection, which showcases a range of poems as vast as the continent.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Amanda Gorman At Biden's Inauguration Reminded Me: Politics Needs Poetry

      Jan 24, 2021

      Obama-endorsed and wearing gold-clipped braids and Oprah-gifted earrings, 22-year old poet Amanada Gorman and her poem The Hill We Climb have been the talking point of Biden’s inauguration. Her five-minute poem, which started with the question “When

      3 min read

    • Article

      Several Attempts at Understanding Percival Everett

      Apr 11, 2024

      I knew from the dozens of other interviews I had read with him that Everett doesn’t love doing press. “I wonder why?” he joked to me. The post Several Attempts at Understanding Percival Everett appeared first on The Millions.

      19 min read

    • Article

      The Late Bloomer

      Sep 1, 2023

      “An eccentric woman deserves an eccentric biography.” So writes Willard Spiegelman in this first biography of the poet Amy Clampitt. If there was anything eccentric about the genteel bohemian Amy Clampitt, it was that she was extremely private about

      5 min read

    • Article

      Harlem’s Renaissance

      Jul 1, 2020

      Harlem’s Renaissance
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again" - Gale

      14

      Let America Be America Again

      Langston Hughes

      1938

      Introduction

      Langston Hughes's poem Let America Be America Again, first published in 1938, is representative of much of the famous writer's work. Hughes first became known during the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry, plays, and essays speak to and portray the African American everyman and use the rhythms of blues, jazz, and black spirituals. His impact, however, did not end on the page, as he continued to be a popular and influential voice for decades: in 1966, the year before he died, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be the American representative to the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. While Hughes was there, according to the New York Times (as quoted by Arnold Rampersad in a biography of Hughes), young writers from all over Africa followed him about the city and haunted his hotel the way American youngsters dog favorite baseball players.

      Let America Be America Again tackles the complicated issues of racial and social equality using simple language and clear images. Although the poem mentions many examples of hardship and unfairness, portraying the difficult economic situation in the United States in the 1930s, the final lines offer some hope for the future of the American dream. The poem first appeared in Esquire magazine as well as the pamphlet The New Song and can be found in the modern Hughes editions The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (1994) and Poems

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1