Poem Analysis

The N**** 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 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

Line:

1.  Rivers in this poem I think represent the slavery in history.

2. Further elaborating about how rivers are intertwined with slavery in history.

3. He talks about how his soul has grown deep like the rivers. Maybe because he is depressed?

4-6. In these lines he is talking about his race as a whole and how they have been a major factor throughout history.

7. This line is similar to the previous lines except it is more personal. It talks about how when Abe Lincoln went to new orleans the mississippi "sang" and the muddy bosom turned into "a golden sunset" which is talking about how he took out slavery and "transformed" the south.

8-10. It describes here how the rivers "In my interpretation" have become ancient and dusky like the times when his race had equal rights.

     When Langston Hughes wrote this poem, he was on a train headed to Mexico riding along the Mississippi River. He wrote this poem in a time when racial injustice was very prominent in America. Langston uses rivers as a metaphor for slavery throughout history and he speaks about how Abe Lincoln turned it around and turned it into a sunset.