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. 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.

Symbolism, Imagery & wordplay: 1-Rivers

Rivers are the superstars of this poem, and our speaker likens his soul to the rivers he has known in his lifetime. However, we know our speaker could not have lived through over four thousand years of history. In this way, our speaker comes to represent a community of individuals, and the rivers become a metaphor for the history, spirit, and wisdom of Africans and African-Americans. Through this metaphor, our speaker documents a history and a heritage. Line 1: The "rivers" mentioned are part of an extended metaphor that likens the soul of the black community to the ancient, wise, and enduring great rivers of the earth. Line 1 and Line 11: In these lines we hear the refrain of the line, "Ive known rivers," as it is repeated. In this way, the poem becomes cyclical and musical. Line 2: The enjambment {the running over of a sentence from one verse or couplet into another so that closely related words fall in different lines } , at the end of this line causes our eye to immediately and hungrily devour the beginning of the following line. Line 2: Here, the speaker uses a simile to compare the age of the rivers to the age of the Earth: "ancient as the world."

Line 3: In this line, the rivers become a metaphor for the rivers of blood that flow through human veins. Line 4: Our speaker uses a simile to compare the depth of his soul to that of the rivers. Line 4 and Line 13: Again we hear the refrain in the line, "my soul has grown deep like the rivers," as it is repeated. Line 5: We find an allusion here to the cradle of civilization as bordered by the Euphrates River. Line 6: We come across another allusion here to the Congo River basin in central western Africa. Line 6: The Congo River is personified as it has lulled our speaker to sleep like a mother singing a lullaby. Line 7: We find yet another allusion to the Nile River and to the moment in history in which the pyramids were built. Line 7: The speaker uses hyperbole when he says that he "raised the pyramids." We know he couldnt have built the one of the seven wonders of the world by himself. Line 8: Again, we are presented with an allusion to the Mississippi River and to the moment in history when Abe Lincoln sailed down this river, witnessing the horrors of slavery. Line 8: The Mississippi River is personified as the speaker describes its singing. Line 8, Line 9, Line 10: The enjambment at the end of each of these lines again creates the sense of the rivers flow, and visually reflects the winding path of a great river. Line 9 and 10: Here our speaker creates an image of the sun setting on the great Mississippi River, turning it to gold. Line 10: The Mississippi River is again personified as it is described as having a "bosom," granting it feminine, maternal qualities.

2-Darkness
When we pull it apart piece by piece, we notice how our speaker pays careful attention to darkness and light throughout. He describes the "muddy" Mississippi turn "golden" as the sun sets and as night looms large. He talks of "dusky rivers" and of nights sleeping near the Congo River. In this way, our speaker highlights the conversation of race that takes place in the poem as well as the interplay of confinement and freedom that weaves in and out of the history he tells. Line 9: The "muddy" color of the Mississippi is a metaphor for skin color in the context of slavery, and it becomes "golden" when slavery is abolished and when slaves are freed. Line 12: The "dusky" nature of the rivers is perhaps a metaphor for both skin color, but also the shadows and darkness that haunt our speakers past.

3-Speaker
Our speaker is a wise, old man with a lot of stories to tell. We imagine him surrounded by a flock of grandchildren at one moment, eyes twinkling, telling rich stories about ancestors and about the familys history. He also seems to us to be like an ancient and respected professor, standing at a podium before a sea of eager students. He tells them of all of the places he has visited and all of the world events he has witnessed. Indeed, our speaker is a world traveler, a man with a time machine. He has seen the birth of civilization, he has helped to build the pyramids, and he has seen the abolishment of slavery. Theres a music to the way our speaker speaks, as though hes singing a song, saying a prayer, or leading a service. For some reason, we cant help but think of that ancient Greek poet, Homer, who had epic stories like The Odyssey memorized and who would recite them for his audiences Even though our speaker tells us about what he has seen and done using strong and specific "I" statements ["I bathed" (5), "I built" (6), "I looked" (7), "I heard" (8)] we wonder if there might not be many people behind the "I" in this poem.

4-Setting
A positively global setting we have here. We glance out of our spaceship window at the beautiful planet Earth. When our speaker speaks of "rivers" we see some of the worlds biggest rivers slicing through continents like so many pieces of thread. Our speaker gets specific, and we travel to the Euphrates River, which forms the cradle of human civilization in the Middle East. After that, we move to the rainforests of central western Africa where the Congo River sings us to sleep. Shortly thereafter we zoom to Egypt where the Nile River is crowded with boats bearing granite and limestone to build the pyramids. Lastly, we snake down the wide, winding Mississippi River, laden with catfish. We catch a glimpse of a nineteen yearold Abe Lincoln on a flatboat in the middle of this muddy river. The sounds of this poem are almost as powerful as the images themselves. We hear our speaker splash around in the Euphrates. We can hear the rushing water of the Nile.

5-Whats Up With The Title

We hear a voice in this title. The voice seems to be that of an onlooker who is listening to a person speak of rivers. We imagine this onlooker to be part of a crowded room or hall, watching "the Negro" deliver a speech or sermon. The verb "speaks" is in the present tense, making us feel as though weve come across a current event, a revolutionary moment. This title instantly time-machines us to the early 20th century when the "negro" was the term of self-identification that the black community in America adopted for itself. This selfidentification and self-naming allowed the black community to claim identity and to celebrate their national presence at a time when slavery was a not-so-distant memory and when acts of racism and intolerance occurred frequently. While this term was rejected during Civil Rights era and throughout the '60s, Langston Hughes was a contemporary of the major activists W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey, and was responding to the social movements of his time. The presence of this term in the title immediately lets us know that the following poem will treat the black experience. We find it noteworthy, however, that this term only appears in the title, thus placing emphasis on the universal nature of the ideas that it treats.