The Negro Speaks of Rivers Essay

600 Words3 Pages
The Negro Speaks of Rivers is a great poem that references the history of African Americans from slavery to freedom. In this poem Langston Hughes does a great job of underlying the message to the reader. He hides the meaning of the poem in rivers and human veins. But through these images and details, it becomes clear to the reader how to understand the themes of the poem. This poem is important to readers because it gives insight to how African Americans first started off as slaves and then later triumphed and became free. In the first stanza: I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. Langston Hughes is referring to roots like those from plants or trees. Like rivers and human veins, roots run deep and twist irregularly through where they are planted. The ancient rivers he talks about are like the blood in the veins or the roots in the trees because they can give and support life. The first stanza is talking about how far back the human history goes. In the second stanza: My soul has grown deep like the rivers. This line shows that rivers are similar to the soul and are never ending. Referring to the soul being as deep as the river gives an organic connection to the Earth, and can thrive and understand. Saying that the soul has “grown” is important as well because it emphasizes the nature of knowledge and of one’s soul. The third stanza states: 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. In this section it is obvious that not one person could have lived through all these events because of the time gap, but this section is written in
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