Analysis of “A Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Analysis of “A Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Analysis of “A Negro Speaks of Rivers”
                By Langston Hughes


Born James Langston Hughes on February 1, 1902, this African American poet was one of several black voices to be heard in America.   Langston Hughes became the central figure of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. He wrote “A Negro Speaks of Rivers” when he was only eighteen years.   Hughes examines some of the roles African Americans played throughout history in this poem.   It also tells how blacks have been exploited and made to suffer.   The rivers in “A Negro Speaks of Rivers” are not only seen as bodies of water, but they represent different times in history and the birth and growth of the African American culture.  
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, MO and graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.   When he was young he traveled the world as a merchant seaman.   He displays his pride and determination as an African American even in early times when blacks were called ‘Negro’ and ‘Colored’.   The examples of each role cited in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are very specific, but they suggest greater injustices relying on the readers' general knowledge of world history.   The poem implies the whole history of African Americans' enslavement without mentioning the word itself.   He narrates this history from the beginning.
Throughout the poem Hughes uses the word “I”. This word does not represent one man but instead personifies the culture of African Americans.   When Hughes says “I’ve known rivers” he actually means that the African Peoples have seen those times that are represented by the rivers and grew strong because of them.   For example he says, “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young” (line 5) and this gives the impression that he was around long ago when the river was just starting to form. Another quote, “I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans”(line 8) shows a passage of time...