Langston Hughes 'I' Ve Known Rivers

First, Hughes uses the element of repetition to support the theme of memory and the past. In Hughes short poem, the line “I’ve known rivers” is repeated in the first and eleventh line (Hughes 1). When Hughes says, “I’ve known rivers”, he starts off the poem and instantly talks about the past. He talks about the past by saying he has known rivers, and not that he knows rivers. Since the line starts off the poem, it leads into the memory of the entire list of rivers he has known. The Euphrates, Congo, Nile, and the Mississippi are all rivers that he remembers and has previously “looked upon” or “bathed in” (Hughes 5,7). Hughes choice to repeat this line makes it stick in the reader’s head that he remembers the rivers and has past experiences around the rivers. Hughes wants the reader to know that he knows about the rivers he mentions in his

Langston Hughes uses both Harlem and The Negro Speaks of Rivers to evoke responses from his readers. Both of these poems are profound in and of themselves when simply read given the political and racial tensions at the time, but when read and digested, they can speak to any race, creed, or color. The use of figurative language in both of these poems is what makes them so easy to identify with. He uses blood, deep rivers, rotten meat, and other nouns to allow the reader to process what each of his or her own rotten meat or deep river is. Interestingly enough, when read passionately, the reader could get lost in his or her own story, but it is of upmost importance to remember that Hughes is chronicling the story of African American plight in such a way that allows anyone to identify with it. It is through this identification that allows anyone to develop pride and sensitivity for Hughes and his people.

The poem ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes is about a man with a vast knowledge and understanding of rivers. The first two sentences of the poem are similar, as in both Hughes states, ‘I’ve known rivers’. From this the reader gathers that this man has been around rivers and probably lived around rivers. He talks about different experiences he has had on four different rivers. For example he says, ‘I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young’ 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’ shows a passage of time from

I believe that there is a reason as to why Langston Hughes chose to use these four rivers. The first river that Langston brings up is the Euphrates. His exact words were, “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.”. By him saying this I believe that he was trying to say that when Earth was just starting to form, Hughes was there. Hughes also goes on to say that, “I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.”.

One of his earliest poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, was written in 1921, long before Hughes would actually travel the world. However, without knowing the authors background and history, one might think it was written by a wise man of old age. Having only lived in various places in the United States, Hughes wrote this poem of an African American man who has seen the world, full with things many people never get to see, that nourished his soul and formed bonds with humans' deepest roots. The four rivers the narrator is mentioning, the Euphrates, the Congo river, the Nile and the Mississippi river, are all of great importance not only in the lives of all human beings, but slaves in particular.

In Langston Hughes’ inspirational poem, “Negro Speaks of Rivers,” he expresses, “My soul has grown as deep like the rivers,” (lines 4 and 13), describing how his encounters with racial intolerance have made him stronger as a person in both spiritual and emotional ways; rather than to just step down and submit to the cruelty of racism. The quote could also be interpreted as a sign of perseverance and hope for people who have experienced not only racial injustice, but other forms of degradation in society, both past and present. Langston Hughes uses rivers in his poem as an interpretation of life.

In the fourth line of the poem Hughes speaks of the Euphrates River. This river symbolizes the birth of life and the beginning of civilization. This river represents the youth of the African American people. It speaks of their beginning. Then Hughes talks of the Congo River in Africa. This is an image of home for many African Americans. It represents a place of peace and tranquility in their lives. Hughes writes about the Nile River and the great pyramids in Egypt. The pyramids can be viewed as a symbol of slavery to many people due to the slave labor that it took to create these grand structures. Finally the great Mississippi River is written about. Many symbols arise from this river of the South. To many whites it represents prosperity, especially in the time of the Civil War when slave trade was one of the bases of economy. To many African Americans this river may represent the oppression of their people. The image of Abe Lincoln riding down the Mississippi can be seen as a symbol of hope and freedom to the slaves of the South. The very fact that he is on this particular river represents the times of change about to come.

Langston Hughes was an influential and phenomenal American poet and activist. Hughes is best known for being a leading contender and influential poet in tthe Harlem Renaissance. Location is important in ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers.’ The rivers in the poem are biblical and are also located in Africa. The cradle of life is in Africa.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

     Hughes frequently addresses the notion of heritage and the importance of remembering the past in his writing. He elaborates specifically on his own understanding of African American culture and ancestry. In his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes compares his knowledge of his people’s past with the depth of a river. The lines “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the/ flow of human blood in human veins” convey the extreme age and richness of human society, including his own culture. Hughes writes that his “soul has grown deep like the rivers,” indicating that he has learned to respect and admire the customs, beliefs, and history of African Americans and their forbears. His belief in the importance of respect for one’s culture and its past seems especially significant when considered alongside his role as an advocate for African American rights.

This poem was written during the Harlem Renaissance so it was definitely a projection of what the African-American community was going through. When the speaker says “I’ve known rivers” (Hughes 526) and then lists the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The Euphrates is what historians and archaeologists often label as the birthplace of human civilization. Then, he mentions the strong and mighty Congo, which many great African kingdoms have flourished. The speaker then cites the long, winding Nile and the great Egyptian pyramids.

In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Hughes embarks his readers on a journey of African American ancestry from Africa to America. A large mass of the ancestry and history of African Americans were depleted because of the slave trade. Hughes writes “[m]y soul has grown deep like the rivers” (Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers) portrays that despite the damage of the slave trade on families and history, the roots of the African American are indestructible and have the capacity to flourish as nature continues to do. Rivers or

Langston Hughes was a novelist, fiction, poet, playwright and fiction writer. He is known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through to the sixties and was important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” while on a train crossing the Mississippi River on the way to visit his father in Mexico in 1920; he was 17 years old at the time. Hughes helped to unite and inspire the African American community when their voice was not appreciated by a predominantly white society, and as a result, he became the unofficial poet laureate of the Renaissance. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" connects the soul and heritage of the African American community to four great rivers in Africa, America and the Middle East. In this way, the poem charts the journey of African and African Americans and links this community to the birth of civilization. Hughes tells the tale of freedom and enslavement that

Langston Hughes in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is speaking about the path that African Americans had to take to get to where they are and how he too has faced and seen many things in his lifetime. He uses repetition in his statement “I’ve known rivers”, which he uses three times throughout the short poem. Reminding the reader to pay attention to the long journey they overcame. He first speaks on how the struggles of African Americans began in ancient times. Referencing them going back before the beginning of man, “…older than the flow of human blood in human veins”. He then uses a simile to draw himself into the struggle; “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”. Boldly stating that he has seen and been through so much in his life that his

Since the early 19th century, the disregard of disabled people as sexual beings has been apparent. By tracing the history of disability and sexuality and situating it into the 21st century, the present paper addresses how disabled individuals have been socially constructed as abnormal, asexual, and undesirable ‘others.’ Specifically, I discuss how sex and disability has been culturally defined in relation to ableist and heteronormative ideals and how this has influenced current myths about disabled people’s sexualities. Throughout the paper, I address how normative definitions of disabled sexuality differ from deconstructive definitions rooted in disability studies perspectives. In doing so, I argue that sex stereotypes create impairments for