Key Information:
- Title: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
- Poet: Langston Hughes (1910-1967)
- Published: 1920
Theme: Blackness, Perseverance, and Cultural Identity.
Literary Device: Alliteration, Simile, Personification, Allusion, Synecdoche.
Summary
The poem “The Negro Speaks Of River” was written by Langston Hughes in 1920 when he was only 17 years old. He wrote this poem while traveling by train over the Mississippi River. Hughes always spoke about the rights of black people. This poem is no exception. Here he talks about racism. Black people have existed since the dawn of civilization. They have also contributed to the development of human civilization like white people, but still, they do not get the rights they deserve.
At the beginning of the poem, the poet says that he knows the rivers. He wants to tell the readers about some of the rivers he knows. All are large and very old. All these rivers have played a very important role in the creation of human civilization on Earth. He bathed in the Euphrates River. Then he built his house on the banks of the Congo River. He also saw the construction of the pyramids along the Nile. When Abraham Lincoln visited Orleans, Africa to abolish slavery, he heard the Mississippi River sing. That is, the poet wants to convey that the Negro race has existed since the beginning of the creation of the world. They are a very old race. Negroes have also contributed significantly to the advancement of civilization.
Then the poet repeats the opening lines again. To the reader, he expresses his solidarity with these rivers. Here the poet wants to affirm the human rights of the Negroes by describing the permanence of their existence.
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