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Transcript

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Analysis

Meaning

Style

Rhyme and Rhythm

By:

Jessica, Jena, Chaundy, Amanda, Helen, and Emily

Hughes uses the first person perspective in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" to represent the African American race as a whole. Throughout the poem, the narrator describes how African Americans' experiences all across the world, all throughout history, have shaped who they are today and they've been made stronger because of all they've been through.

Since this poem is free verse, it does not follow the conventional rules of rhythm. Instead of having a constant rhythm, like iambic pentameter, this poem has a flowing rhythm. The words and phrases have a pattern of flowing into each other and then breaking off.

The poem does not contain any rhyming, in any pattern.

This poem is written in free verse, so there is not a set rhyme scheme or structure. The unstructured form of the poem and its flowing phrases and a style that replicates the lulling motion of a river. The poem is cyclical with its constant repetition, which corresponds to the natural repeating rhythm of a river.

By Langston Hughes

Figurative Language

Repetition

Connection to the Harlem Renaissance

Hughes’s repetition of the phrases “I’ve known rivers” and “my soul has grown deep” creates a kind of cyclical feeling and rhythm to the poem that both mimics the sound of a river and likely demonstrates the patterns of migration African Americans have faced as Hughes describes in the poem.

Hughes uses personification of the Mississippi river singing, along with the extended metaphor of the narrator’s soul being similar to a river in that the African American race, and the old rivers of the world, have both been around the world for a long amount of time and have grown wise, and tough, because of that.

Analysis

The poem, in reminding African Americans of their history, calls for them to unite and embrace their history, which is a true characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance. By encouraging pride in their history all over the world and their ability to overcome the trials and tribulations they’ve been through, Hughes uses this poem to encourage a sense of African American pride.

"I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep."

"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."

In the first line of the stanza, the narrator begins his journey in the Euphrates, the birthplace of the earliest human civilizations. By saying that he was there "when dawns were young", the narrator shows that he has been around since the beginning.

In the second line of the stanza, the narrator's journey took him to the Congo in Africa where the Congo River, one of the world's largest rivers lulled him to sleep. The Congo was home to many strong African kingdoms. The Congo represents a place of strength and once again, the river symbolizes the narrator's growth.

In the first two lines of the poem, the narrator introduces himself as someone who has been around for a long time, and someone who has seen a lot of the world. In saying that the narrator has 'known rivers ancient as the world," the narrator states that he has been around as long as the earth has.

In the last line shown here, the narrator compares himself to these ancient rivers, and states that just like they have grown physically deep over the course of history, he has grown deep as time has passed.

"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."

In the last few lines of the poem, the narrator reiterates his long history, and emphasizes the point that he has been a part of the world, just like the rivers he has traveled to throughout the course of his life, since the beginning of the world.

In these lines, the narrator establishes himself as someone who built the pyramids in ancient times, near another one of the world's oldest rivers--the Nile.

Next, the narrator describes his experience at the Mississippi, one of the most influential rivers in the course of his history. The narrator mentions when President Abraham Lincoln traveled down the Mississippi to witness America's slavery firsthand in New Orleans. The description about the river shows that at sunset, the sunlight turned the notoriously dirty Mississippi river into a beautiful sight.

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