The negro speaks of rivers is a free verse poem written by Langston Hughes in 1921. He penned against the racial discrimination in America. He contributed to the growth of the Harlem movement that celebrated literature from a black viewpoint. I dream a world is another notable work by him.
Langston Hughes received a letter from his father which took him to the nostalgic memories. He had that letter during his train journey to Mexico. He flipped the letter and wrote this poem by enjoying the beauty of nature during that train trip.
This poem represents the agonies suffered by the blacks in the United States in the early twentieth century. His writings were widespread because of the social activities he participated in for the black communities.
The identical crisis which every black underwent is visible in this poem also. He uses the river as a symbol to express the depth of diverse experiences he had. He also proclaims the prehistoric existence of rivers which outstrips human history.
He uses similes in his poem like, “my soul has grown deep like the rivers.” He uses other poetic devices like Anaphora and Personification also. He mentions, ” I bathed,” ” I looked,” and ” I heard” to justify Anaphora in his work. He uses this pronoun to affirm that he acted independently in the past.
Personification is a method in which human attributes are given to nonhuman objects. Hughes mentions the singing of the Mississippi river, ” I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans.”
The poem ends with an optimistic note that he knows ” Ancient, dusky rivers,” which indicates the African culture he grew up in. And he affirms that his soul has grown deep like the rivers. Even though he has cultural conflicts he confines that he has deep faith in his African culture and that nothing peripheral can transform it.
We can find the theme cultural conflicts in other poems like Once upon a time and the Mystic drum.
