Episode 51: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes

GoodPoetry

Read and more GoodPoetry at www.GoodPoetry.org, and listen on Audible, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Anchor.Fm, iHeart, and GooglePlay Music and connect with us @itsGoodPoetry on Facebook, and Twitter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photograph Info: Langston Hughes in 1936 by Carl Van Vechten ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Poem: The Negro Speaks of Rivers (To W.E.B. DuBois) 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.