The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro Speaks of Rivers - context Summary
Published in 1921
Published in 1921 in The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes’s "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" situates an individual voice within a vast, transhistorical landscape. Rivers stand as collective memory, linking African origins (Euphrates, Congo, Nile) with African American experience (Mississippi), and asserting a dignified, ancient heritage. The poem reflects Hughes’s exploration of Black history and identity during the early Harlem Renaissance, using elemental imagery to claim continuity and depth of soul.
Read Complete AnalysesI've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
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