What Is The Meaning Of The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

Poet, Langston Hughes, in his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," hyperbolizes his deep connection with the rivers with African heritage. Hughes' purpose was to express his pride of his african heritage through the language of first-person. Hughes' use of repetition sets the poem to be more nostalgic later on: "I bathed," "I built," "I looked", "I heard". He uses this tone in order to appeal a similar nostalgic feeling in his african american readers.

Langston Hughes was the leading voice of African American people in his time, speaking through his poetry to represent blacks. His Influence through his poems are seen widely not just by blacks but by those who enjoy poetry in other races and social classes. Hughes poems, Harlem, The Negro speaks of rivers, Theme for English B, and Negro are great examples of his output for the racial inequality between the blacks and whites. The relationship between whites and blacks are rooted in America's history for the good and the bad. Hughes poems bring the history at large and present them in a proud manner. The injustice that blacks face because of their history of once being in bondage is something they are constantly reminded and ridiculed for but must overcome and bring to light that the thoughts of slavery and inequality will be a lesson and something to remember for a different future where that kind of prejudice is not found so widely.

In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” The speaker Hughes asserts that he has referred to rivers as ancient as the world, more seasoned than the blood that streams in our veins. His soul has developed profound, much the same as the rivers. He expounds on bathing in the Euphrates toward the start of civilization, and later, he fabricated a hut along the Congo and tuned in to the river as he nodded off. He took a gander at the Nile and watched the pyramids rise adjacent; he heard the sloppy Mississippi sing when Abraham Lincoln flew out to New Orleans. He rehashes that he has known ancient, dusky rivers, and his soul has developed profound like the rivers. On the other hand, McKay’s poem is about the past which was faced by the speaker as a great

The poem ?The Negro Speaks of Rivers? by Langston Hughes contains many symbolic meanings about the identity of African Americans. Throughout the poem Hughes uses metaphorical statements to suggest to the reader what the soul of the African American has been through. The symbols of the old rivers from which the African American ideal has risen can be interpreted in many different ways. They represent the birth and growth of the African American culture, and some of the most significant moments of their past. The words written in this poem represent the pride and knowledge of a group of outstanding people.

In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Langston Hughes mentions four famous rivers, and I believe he specifically names them so people will think of the history that comes along with them. When Hughes says, "I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it" (6). He relates the Nile river with the building of the pyramids. He also names the Euphrates, the Congo, and the Mississippi rivers. He talks of each river in a different manner. Each time also a different part of history.

The poem ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes is about a man with a vast knowledge and understanding of rivers. The first two sentences of the poem are similar, as in both Hughes states, ‘I’ve known rivers’. From this the reader gathers that this man has been around rivers and probably lived around rivers. He talks about different experiences he has had on four different rivers. For example he says, ‘I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young’ and this gives the impression that he was around long ago when the river was just starting to form. Another quote, ‘I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans’ shows a passage of time from

In Langston Hughes' poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", he examines some of the roles that blacks have played throughout history. Ultimately, the poem asserts that in every one of these aspects the black people have been exploited and made to suffer, mostly at the hands of white people. The poem is written entirely in first person, so there is a very personal tone, even though the speaker symbolizes the entire black race. The examples of each role cited in the poem are very specific, but they allude to greater indignities, relying on the readers' general knowledge of world history. To convey the injustice that has taken place, Hughes utilizes the symbolism of the

Langston Hughes wrote this poem while he crossed the Mississippi River en route to Mexico to visit his father. I can only imagine when he crossed the river he reflected on how generations are interconnected and fluid just like water flowing down the river. Langston connects the two with the line “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” During this time, African-Americans were beginning to connect with and take pride in, their history and culture. The metaphor of the river represents the rich and ancient history that flowed in all African Americans.

In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Hughes embarks his readers on a journey of African American ancestry from Africa to America. A large mass of the ancestry and history of African Americans were depleted because of the slave trade. Hughes writes “[m]y soul has grown deep like the rivers” (Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers) portrays that despite the damage of the slave trade on families and history, the roots of the African American are indestructible and have the capacity to flourish as nature continues to do. Rivers or

One of his earliest poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, was written in 1921, long before Hughes would actually travel the world. However, without knowing the authors background and history, one might think it was written by a wise man of old age. Having only lived in various places in the United States, Hughes wrote this poem of an African American man who has seen the world, full with things many people never get to see, that nourished his soul and formed bonds with humans' deepest roots. The four rivers the narrator is mentioning, the Euphrates, the Congo river, the Nile and the Mississippi river, are all of great importance not only in the lives of all human beings, but slaves in particular.

In Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” used rivers to describe African American people and I agree he described them to be equal, using metaphors, similes, and allusions. Langston Hughes wrote this poem in 1921 when racial issues between Caucasian and African American people were a significant problem. The poem is written in “free verse” and uses anaphora to give the reader the effect that he is the one telling the poem. The poem gives the reader the understanding that African American people have been around for as long as Caucasian people and are equally intelligent. The rivers give us a great meaning to the history of African American people and the narrator has known their struggle. There is a feeling of death towards the end of the poem. This gives the reader the impression that we are still struggling to be equal and it has withered him until his death.

Written at the age of seventeen, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes illustrates the historical journey of the African American race to America (Socarides). By using rivers as a metaphor for the source of life, Hughes outlines the movement of African American race from the Nile and Euphrates rivers in Africa to the Mississippi. Hughes subtly expresses his admonition of slavery and racism in the line "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" (Line 4). The line first appears in the poem when it follows the speaker’s statement that he has known rivers "ancient as the world and older than the/ flow of human blood in human veins" (Lines 2-3). The speaker here classifies himself

“The Negro speaks of Rivers”, by Langston Hughes, is an extraordinary work. It’s filled with deep passion of history and the spirit of those African Americans who’ve thrived for peace, and died for the betterment of tomorrow. Reading this poem though it be short in length, I was inspired by the metaphors and symbolism Hughes used. For starters the poem as a whole discusses years and years of triumph from those of our ancestors. Hughes shows a timeline throughout the poem, using it as a metaphor of the thousands of years that African Americans as a people have grown. “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.” (Lines 8-10). In this exert of the poem the muddy color of the Mississippi is a metaphor for skin color in the context of slavery and became golden when slavery was abolished by Lincoln. Not only does Hughes use metaphors to describe his great admiration, but he also personifies. It is known that he could not have lived through over five thousand years of triumph, but he personifies his soul to say that it has grown as deep as

A big message in Langston Hughes poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, is the message of freedom. This poem talks and explains a lot about rivers, but thinking deep down it begins to focus on African Americans and their lack of freedom. A river flows easy and is free to do whatever. This is referring to what blacks should be able to do, like a river, flow and have freedom to do what they want. In Langston Hughes

In the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes as it depicts History of Slavery and Freedom by telling the story of each rivers where the blacks were being enslaved. Euphrates, Congo, Nile and Mississippi were all symbolism in the poem of how they were treated. There is a historical reference to Abraham Lincoln going to New Orleans which also tells us about when he first saw slavery and reminds us that he was the one who fought against slavery.