"The Negro Speaks of Rivers"-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 the 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

-Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"


It seems kind of weird that a white kid from Connecticut would choose a poem called "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" as his favorite Langston Hughes poem. I will admit that this is the first Langston Hughes poem that I'ave actually looked at. I'll also admit that I do not know very much about Hughes besides the fact that he was black, wrote this poem when he was in his late teens or early 20's, and was a key figure in what is referred to as the "Jazz Age" of America.

I probably shouldn't have said that this was my favorite Hughes poem since I have not read very many of them. We read this one in class, and when I went to choose a favorite for this post, I liked this one more than the others that Iread.

What I like about this poem is that all the rivers mentioned in the poem have in some way impacted the course of human history. The Euphrates is considered part of what is called the Cradle of Civilization, where humanity and civilized culture as we know it today first started. The Congo is the second largest river in Africa. It's inclusion in the poem could serve as a reference to Hughes's African heritage, as the Congo winds its way through multiple countries in the African interior. The inclusion of the Nile is notable, because contrary to conventional knowledge, one of the longest Ancient Egyptian dynasties consisted of darker skinned Africans.