The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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.

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.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes 



Analysis:

    From the title of this free verse, we can tell that it is written from the perspective of an African-American. 
    The first-person use of "I" is not necessarily Langston Hughes himself, but Africans as a whole. The river is a symbol of events that has happened as time passed by. Africa is believed to be the place where human species originated, so from a scientific perspective, Africans have existed longer than any other ethic groups. They were not respectfully treated by other races but were discriminated for a period of time. Rivers are ancient, so in this poem, the river is a representation of the history of Africans; their views and experiences.