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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Let America Be America Again” is a stirring, patriotic poem that draws on the celebration of America in the poetry of Walt Whitman as well as popular songs such as “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” but it also contains a stern critique of the nation it praises.
The first quatrain, with its call for the renewal of America, presents a positive view of the country, alluding to the American dream. However, it also contains a hint that at the time Hughes is writing the poem, all is not quite as it should be: “Let it be the dream it used to be” (Line 2). Something was present in the past that is now absent. Even this hint does not really prepare the reader for the blunt force of Line 5, standing as a single line on the page: “(America never was America to me).” The poet thus takes the reader from the “used to be” of Line 2 to the “never was” in Line 5. (The same pattern is presented in Lines 6-10, with greater specificity, highlighting the lack of equality and freedom.)
These opening lines might suggest that at this point, the poet, being African American, is presenting an African American speaker who is referring to the absence of racial justice in America.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes