Poetry Response #7 "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" BY LANGSTON HUGHES

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

I’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.

Response: 

The speaker of  poem is very nostalgic when speaking of the history negroes have towards the rivers they speak of; similarly, the tone of nostalgia allows the reader to emit a feeling of liberation. Perhaps the speaker feels liberated as well while reading. Nostalgia can be sensed in the second and third lines of the poem, “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” Thinking of the old times gives an old time to reflect on and the speaker has to recollect those ancient memories. There is an interesting repetition of the phrase “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”, and the speaker also says the same phrase to end the poem. Perhaps the repetition of the phrase may illuminate a possible theme within the poem: With souls as deep as a river, there is no containment of the human spirit.

Langston Hughes uses deep rivers as a symbol and metaphor for freedom, connecting it to times where Africans were deemed entirely free, “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.” The Nile is a river and the Congo is a place in Africa; additionally, the pyramids were built in Africa. Abe Lincoln is known as the figure in history who emancipated the slaves, and New Orleans is a place where black souls can thrive.