"The Negro Speaks of River" was written in 1920 by the American poet Langston Hughes. One of the key poems of a literary movement called the "Harlem Renaissance," "The Negro Speaks of River" traces black history from the beginning of human civilization to the present, encompassing both triumphs (like the construction of the Egyptian pyramids) and horrors (like American slavery). The poem argues that the black "soul" has incorporated all of this historical experience, and in the process has become "deep." The poem thus suggests that black cultural identity is continuous, that it stretches across the violence and displacement of slavery to connect with the past—and that black people have made vital, yet often neglected contributions to human civilization.
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The Full Text of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
1I’ve known rivers:
2I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
3My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
4I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
5I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
6I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
7I 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.
8I’ve known rivers:
9Ancient, dusky rivers.
10My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
The Full Text of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
1I’ve known rivers:
2I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
3My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
4I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
5I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
6I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
7I 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.
8I’ve known rivers:
9Ancient, dusky rivers.
10My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Summary
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Themes
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Blackness, Perseverance, and Cultural Identity
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
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Lines 1-2
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. -
Line 3
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
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Lines 4-6
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. -
Line 7
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.
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Lines 8-10
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Symbols
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Rivers
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Human Blood in Human Veins
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The Soul
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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End-Stopped Line
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Refrain
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Anaphora
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Parallelism
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Allusion
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Personification
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Metonymy
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Simile
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Synecdoche
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Ancient
- Deep
- Euphrates
- Congo
- Lulled
- Nile
- Raised
- Pyramids
- Mississippi
- Abe Lincoln
- Bosom
- Dusky
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Speaker
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“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
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More “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Resources
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External Resources
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The Harlem Renaissance — A history of the Harlem Renaissance from the Poetry Foundation, with links to key poems from the movement.
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Langston Hughes Biography — A detailed biography of Langston Hughes from the Poetry Foundation.
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The Poems (We Think) We Know: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes — A detailed analysis of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" from Alexandra Socarides.
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Langston Hughes Reads "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" — Hear Langston Hughes read his poem himself.
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On "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" — A collection of scholarly responses to "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes
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