Search results
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.
By Langston Hughes. ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ is about a man who has seen the great ages of the world alongside the banks of the most important rivers. Written by Langston Hughes at the age of seventeen, it is often cited as his most famous poem. Read Poem. PDF Guide.
One of the key poems of a literary movement called the "Harlem Renaissance," "The Negro Speaks of River" traces black history from the beginning of human civilization to the present, encompassing both triumphs (like the construction of the Egyptian pyramids) and horrors (like American slavery).
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" uses rivers as a metaphor for Hughes's life and the broader African-American experience. It has been reprinted often and is considered one of Hughes's most famous and signature works.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers Summary & Analysis. In 1920, at the tender age of 17, Langston Hughes set out on a train journey from Cleveland, Ohio to visit his estranged father in Mexico City. As the train crossed the Mississippi River, Hughes felt the urge to write.
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.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921) 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. bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers. 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.
Jan 3, 2021 · The Negro Speaks of Rivers. by Langston Hughes. →. The Crisis: A Record of The Darker Races, New York, NY, USA: NAACP, June 1921, p. 17. 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.
‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ was the first mature poem that Langston Hughes (1901-67) had published, in 1921. The poem bears the influence of Walt Whitman, but is also recognisably in Hughes’ own emerging, distinctive voice.
