Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

683 Words2 Pages

Langston Hughes, born February 1, 1902 as James Mercer Langston Hughes in Joplin, Missouri to James Hughes and Carrie Langston grew to become one of the most renowned African-American poets. Langston Hughes’ mother and father soon separated and Hughes began living with his grandmother. As a child and teen Hughes moved around a lot from city to city ending up in Ohio where he lived with his mother. Once in Cleveland, Ohio Hughes interest in poetry began. In school, Hughes became interested in poetry through his teachers. Later in life, Hughes first published work was in ‘The Crisis’ and that is when his career as a poet and his effect on the African American community began. Hughes first published poem was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. He …show more content…

The “rivers” in this poem are “...ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins”(ll. 2,3). This starts with showing power the rivers have. The power lies in the age of the rivers. To live as long as the world and longer than humans shows the might of rivers. The rivers are the ancient, wise, and enduring and as the poem continues the speaker compares the rivers to their soul. When the speaker then goes on to talk about how he or she has known these rivers and the speaker compares the rivers to the depth of their soul. In the poem, when the speaker says how their “soul has grown deep like the rivers”(ll. 4) it shows the strength they have as well. The power of the rivers that have lived and been around longer than people had been compared to the growth of their soul and many people are unable to say that because that amount of growth takes time and challenges that have to be preserved through. The speaker then goes on to talk about their experienced with different legendary rivers in Africa and the Mississippi River. They spoke of how they “ bathed in the Euphrates...built [their] hut near the Congo...[and] looked upon the Nile”(ll. 5-7). Talking of the rivers in Africa shows what they have experienced and how they have seen and interacted with rivers that have stories. When the speaker gets to the Mississippi he or she says how they “heard the singing of the Mississippi

More about Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

Open Document