The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Langston Hughes
- First Published: 1921
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: African Americans, Discrimination, History, Self-discovery, Africa or Africans, Blacks, Twentieth century, Self, Slavery or slaves, Rivers or waterways, Water
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is perhaps Hughes's most anthologized poem. Written in the first-person voice, the poem begins, “I’ve known rivers.” The “I” is a collective voice of black people from ancient times (3000 b.c.e.) to the present. The narrator's voice speaks of bathing in the Euphrates, building a hut near the Congo, raising pyramids by the Nile, and watching the sun set on the Mississippi. The refrain, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers,” links the movement and endurance and power of the great rivers to black history.
The repeated “I,”...
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See Also:
Langston Hughes (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Langston Hughes (Poetry)Langston Hughes (Short Fiction)Langston Hughes (Dictionary of World Biography)Langston Hughes (Identities and Issues)
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