Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

11 Dec 2022 · 1 min

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This YouTube video presents a spoken recitation of Langston Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The narrator adopts the poem’s first‑person voice, declaring a deep, timeless connection to four major rivers—the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. Each river is linked to a historic moment or civilization (ancient Mesopotamia, African kingdoms, Egyptian pyramids, and 19th‑century America). The repeated refrain emphasizes that the speaker’s soul is as deep as these ancient waters, underscoring themes of ancestral memory, African‑American identity, and the continuity of Black experience across continents and ages.

Chapters

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes. 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.