The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes * Track #1 On The Weary Blues
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The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
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Langston HughesAbout
Written in 1920, shortly after the 18 year-old author graduated high school. One of Hughes’s prominent influences at this early point in his career was Carl Sandburg.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers Annotated
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.