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omnipoetics:the_negro_speaks_of_rivers [2025/03/05 22:48] – [Langston Hughes (1901 - 1967)] maryomnipoetics:the_negro_speaks_of_rivers [2025/04/24 00:56] (current) – holly
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 +//Serpent and the Fire// (pp. 374-375)
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 ====== The Negro Speaks of Rivers ====== ====== The Negro Speaks of Rivers ======
 Published by Langston Hughes in 1921.  Published by Langston Hughes in 1921. 
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 Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Hughes became increasingly more interested in theatre, contributing to plays such as the //Mule Bone// with Zora Neal Hurston and the Broadway musical //Street Scene//. Hughes also traveled frequently during this period, sharing his poetry and lectures throughout the South and abroad in places like the Soviet Union, Japan, and Haiti. It was also during this time when Hughes published one of his more well-known and celebrated works titled “Harlem” in his collection //Montage of a Dream Deferred//. This poem inspired not only Lorrain Hansberry’s play //A Raisin in the Sun// but also appears in a number of speeches by Martin Luther King. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Hughes became increasingly more interested in theatre, contributing to plays such as the //Mule Bone// with Zora Neal Hurston and the Broadway musical //Street Scene//. Hughes also traveled frequently during this period, sharing his poetry and lectures throughout the South and abroad in places like the Soviet Union, Japan, and Haiti. It was also during this time when Hughes published one of his more well-known and celebrated works titled “Harlem” in his collection //Montage of a Dream Deferred//. This poem inspired not only Lorrain Hansberry’s play //A Raisin in the Sun// but also appears in a number of speeches by Martin Luther King.
  
-Towards the end of life, Hughes fell into disfavor with some literary groups due to his political passivity. According to the Poetry Foundation, “It was Hughes’s belief in humanity and his hope for a world in which people could sanely and with understanding live together that led to his decline in popularity in the racially turbulent latter years of his life. Unlike younger and more militant writers, Hughes never lost his conviction that ‘//most// people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been.’” (( “Langston Hughes.” //Poetry Foundation//, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes. ))+Towards the end of his life, Hughes fell into disfavor with some literary groups due to his political passivity. According to the Poetry Foundation, “It was Hughes’s belief in humanity and his hope for a world in which people could sanely and with understanding live together that led to his decline in popularity in the racially turbulent latter years of his life. Unlike younger and more militant writers, Hughes never lost his conviction that ‘//most// people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been.’” (( “Langston Hughes.” //Poetry Foundation//, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes. ))
  
 Hughes passed away on May 22, 1967 due to complications from prostate cancer at the age of 66. His ashes were interred at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. Inscribed above his resting place are lines from his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers." It reads: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.” Hughes passed away on May 22, 1967 due to complications from prostate cancer at the age of 66. His ashes were interred at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. Inscribed above his resting place are lines from his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers." It reads: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
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-*Each of these rivers are associated with a form of slavery. Enslaved peoples brought to the Americas via ships endured horrible conditions, and Howard Zinn points out that “Slaves often jumped overboard to drown rather than continue their suffering.” ((Zinn, Howard. //A People's History of the United States//, Harper Perennial, 2003, p. 29)) Moreover, the Euphrates River was mentioned in the //Bible// and may be associated with various slave songs. However, note that according to //A History of African American Poetry// by Lauri Ramey, "It is a misperception that these sung poems [slave songs] were all 'spiritual' in nature." ((Ramey, Lauri, //A History of African American Poetry//, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 61)) Lauri Ramey maintains that "Representing African survivals melded with the experience of the Middle Passage and plantation culture, the origins of slave songs date to the moment of kidnap in Africa." ((Ramey, Lauri, //A History of African American Poetry//, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 61))+*Each of these rivers are associated with a form of slavery. Enslaved peoples brought to the Americas via ships endured horrible conditions, and Howard Zinn points out that “Slaves often jumped overboard to drown rather than continue their suffering.” ((Zinn, Howard. //A People's History of the United States//, Harper Perennial, 2003, p. 29)) Moreover, the Euphrates River was mentioned in the //Bible// and may be associated with various slave songs. In //A History of African American Poetry//, Lauri Ramey maintains that "Representing African survivals melded with the experience of the Middle Passage and plantation culture, the origins of slave songs date to the moment of kidnap in Africa." ((Ramey, Lauri, //A History of African American Poetry//, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 61)) However, if you are attempting to connect Hughes's poem to slave songs, please note that "It is a misperception that these sung poems [slave songs] were all 'spiritual' in nature." ((Ramey, Lauri, //A History of African American Poetry//, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 61))
  
  
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 __Free-Verse__ __Free-Verse__
  
-Hughes’s poem has no particular form as it uses neither rhyme nor a consistent line structure. It is entirely free-verse, drawing upon metaphor and repetition to convey its intention. The use of repetition acts as a refrain in the lines: “My soul has grown deep like the river” (lines 4, 12) (( Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” //The Serpent and the Fire//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Javier Taboada, University of California Press, 2024. )). This line functions as the overarching metaphor of the poem while the repetition of “I’ve known rivers” (( Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” //The Serpent and the Fire//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Javier Taboada, University of California Press, 2024. )) draws out this metaphor to specify its purpose by indicating various symbolic places and historical allusions (lines 1, 2, 10).+Hughes’s poem has no particular form as it uses neither rhyme nor a consistent line structure. It has generally been classified by critics as free-verse, drawing upon metaphor and repetition to convey its intention. The use of repetition acts as a refrain in the lines: “My soul has grown deep like the river” (lines 4, 12) (( Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” //The Serpent and the Fire//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Javier Taboada, University of California Press, 2024. )). This line functions as the overarching metaphor of the poem while the repetition of “I’ve known rivers” (( Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” //The Serpent and the Fire//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Javier Taboada, University of California Press, 2024. )) draws out this metaphor to specify its purpose by indicating various symbolic places and historical allusions (lines 1, 2, 10).
  
 In a video titled, “Langston Hughes Speaking at UCLA 2/16/1967” and uploaded by UCLA Irv and Xiaoyan Drasnin Communication Archive, Hughes speaks about “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and specifically comments on the form of the poem and his writing process. Below is a transcription (22:26-22:52) of a segment of the video:  In a video titled, “Langston Hughes Speaking at UCLA 2/16/1967” and uploaded by UCLA Irv and Xiaoyan Drasnin Communication Archive, Hughes speaks about “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and specifically comments on the form of the poem and his writing process. Below is a transcription (22:26-22:52) of a segment of the video: 
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 Hughes has additionally been credited with making the movement more well-known through his poetry tours, even coining its current title in his autobiography //The Big Sea// (1940). Hughes has additionally been credited with making the movement more well-known through his poetry tours, even coining its current title in his autobiography //The Big Sea// (1940).
  
-====== Additional Resources ====== 
  
  
 +{{tag>English United_States Pan-African Free-Verse Harlem_Renaissance}}
  
  

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