Monday's Poetry: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

 

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

To honor Black History month I have selected one of the best known works of Langston Hughes, a leading poet of the twentieth century.  Hughes, a black man, was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1901, and was a resident  of New York City by the 1920's where he quickly became one of the literary pillars of the Harlem Renaissance.

In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Langston Hughes deftly reminds us that the black race has always played a role in the advancement of civilization - and that we are all fellow travelers on the rivers of time.

"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 dawn was 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.