The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
Yikes! Due to various visitors, craziness at work, and general exhaustion, I seem to have fallen off the wagon. Now I’m back to having my dog as sole companion and it’s nearly the weekend, so hopefully I can get back in the swing of things… Langston Hughes is a poet I don’t know much about, though I’ve read a number of his poems. Thus, I was interested to hear him read some of his poems on Poetry on Record. I hadn’t posted this poem before, but it sounded familiar so maybe I’ve read it. Incredibly, Hughes said it was one of the first poems he wrote, when he was right out of high school, inspired by crossing the Mississippi. I think it’s wonderful, and I was surprised that Hughes’s reading didn’t spark any emotion. It’s not that he read it badly, but it sounded so impersonal. A poem like this seems as if it sprang from deep in his soul and I guess I expected his voice to convey that. At any rate, I like the poem a lot.
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
nbsp; went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
nbsp; bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Wow, I agree how can the reading of this be impersonal?
It’s really good, I love it.
It made me think of Book of Negroes, it really has nothing to do with it and I only made the connection because I finished the book a few days ago but anyway. Have you read it?
Is this the book you mean? I’ve not read it. What did you think?
It’s the one written by Lawrence Hill…I’m surprised it’s won a spot on most best seller lists.
Here’s my review on Chapters if you want to check it out: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/The-Book-of-Negroes-U-S-Title-Someone-Knows-My-Name-Lawrence-Hill/978155468156-562027-Review.html
That sounds like something I’d like to read. I’ll have to add it to my (excessively long) list… I may put it off for a while, though. I read Caribbean by James Michener recently and I’m not sure I’m ready for graphic descriptions of slavery again so soon.
Yea, it has some pretty graphic parts, but it is brilliant.
Haha, and i know what you mean about the long reading lists, recently I’ve tried to cut mine down by asking myself the question: Am I EVER going to get around to this? And a lot of the books just didn’t interest me anymore…plus the local rotary club is accepting donations for it’s next booksale, makes things easier :)