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Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

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In the poem “The Negro Speaks Of Rivers”, Langston Hughes, an African American author during the Harlem Renaissance, portrayed the cultural history of African Americans over thousands of years. Hughes’s usage of symbols, imagery and format gives the poem a deeper meaning and employs the reader’s emotion. The speaker in the poem is an advocate for the entire African American community throughout history. The literary devices used in this poem are valuable in relaying the message and engaging the thoughts of the reader. Throughout the poem the reader goes on a journey through time of the history and culture of African Americans. The Euphrates River, the Congo River Basin, the Nile River and the Mississippi River are all allusions within the …show more content…

The usage of “flow” is important because the word is often used to describe a river and gives the poem the feel of a river. The author personifies the river in a way that gives it motherly and female characteristics. In the line, “I built my hut near the Congo (river) and it lulled me to sleep” (6), the river is singing a lullaby, lulling the speaker asleep like a mother would do to her baby. The Mississippi river is also being personified in the line, “…and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. (10)”, the word “bosom” gives the river a feminine characteristic. The objective of personifying the river in a way that is motherly helps the audience understand the goodness of the river in the lives of the African American people during the hard times. In the same line, “…and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset...” (10), the word “muddy” is a metaphor for the messing lives of the African American community, especially the conflict of slavery. The speaker then goes on to say the muddy river transforms into “golden in the sunset”, which is a metaphor for the ending of slavery. At the end of the day there is a sunset, and after a long road of hardships and slavery for the African American community there is a golden ending. Although the slavery ended, that does not mean all the terror over the years has been erased, “I’ve

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In his writing piece, “That Word Black” (1958), Langston Hughes accentuates the issue over the negative connotation of the term ‘black’, and how its usage associates black individuals with immoral concepts, implying that they are terrible people. By providing imagery, a series of examples of black’s adverse use, and juxtaposition between that of the white’s, the writer heightens pathos. Langston Hughes’ purposes is to reveal the abysmal correlation of the word ‘black’ in order to demonstrate the underlying racism and disparity between black and white people. Because the author uses AAVE to show the ethos and sincerness that he is a black person, and discusses an educational, racial topic, he appeals to the white people who hold a cultural stereotypes

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479 Words | 2 Pages

The poem vividly presents the delayed dreams of African Americans, who are left to endure poverty and despair. The lines “What happens to a dream deferred?/ does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes) evoke feelings of Hopelessness and frustration. The dreams of marginalized individuals are crushed by a society that shows indifference to their struggles, resulting in moral corruption as the oppressed turn to desperate measures. The poem suggests that a society that neglects And fails to fulfill the dreams of its citizens will ultimately succumb to moral decay and social

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960 Words | 4 Pages

“Crossing the Swamp” depicts the speaker’s struggle to stay afloat while crossing a swamp. In the poem, the poet uses imagery, asyndeton, and metaphor to describe the relationship between the speaker and the swamp as a struggle to live. The comparison of life to the swamp reveals that success will come after persistence through scholarships because life will offer chances even after failure. In the beginning, the speaker introduces the description of the swamp and the current situation that the speaker is in.

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201 Words | 1 Pages

1. What effect does the image of rivers create in African American history? Why are the rivers ancient and dusky? The ancient rivers Hughes talked about in his poem “The Negro Speaks of River” are the heritages of African Americans and Africans.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

River, is a big symbol that is connected to the Negro speaker. The Negro talks about how they have grown up all around these rivers and have caused his soul to “grow deep like the rivers.” The river symbolizes a motherly character that comforts them. An example is when the Congo “lulled” them to sleep, as if it was a mother soothing her child. With “I, Too” its saying that the speaker is “too, am America.”

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340 Words | 2 Pages

We went outside and looked into the streets, the buildings had gaping holes in them mostly at the bottom parts and a strong scent of gasoline with burnt wood was in the air. For a while we 've been searching for any survivors, food, or weapons and tools. We eventually ended up finding some medical supplies a little bit of food rations and a dog, the dog was found at a backyard tied to the fence he was lucky to survive the attack but his leg was broken. In our medical supplies where just some gaws and medical tape which made it difficult to fix not only that, the dog was scared and he was growling at us I could see his glimmering white teeth through his mouth. We did however fashion a cast out of a few thin sticks and the tape we aloes wipe the blood off with the gaws and , took the dog with us on the

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1156 Words | 5 Pages

In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes fantasizes about the freedoms his people had in Africa. He yearns to go back to that time, and even though it is not possible, he wants to relive that time. “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawn was 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.”

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899 Words | 4 Pages

One African American author who made a monumental impression on scholars at the time, and still proceeds to impact current students with his powerful poetry was Langston Hughes. Along with him, were well-known female authors Lucille Clifton and Colleen McElroy. Their poems explored their own cultural heritage in a time where most people were unaware of how African Americans felt about various topics. These poems included ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’, ‘I, Too’, ‘Dream Variation’, and ‘Refugee in America’ by Langston

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244 Words | 1 Pages

Hughes claims that his soul has grown deep, just like the rivers. The poem “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers “ is the first poem wrote by Langston Hughes in the year 1920 at 17 years old. The negro speaks of rivers wasn 't about Harlem but many of the issues listed in his poem were about the Harlem Renaissance. In this poem he connects himself with his ancestry.

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252 Words | 2 Pages

Being from Mississippi, Hughes would have been familiar with the Mississippi River and this may partly explain why more emphasis is placed on the details of this river than any of the others. The author’s description of the Mississippi River contains more words than any other line in the poem. The line reads “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” (7). This reference to President Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator, hints at the theme of African American freedom as another connection to Langston Hughes’ present day struggle with finding freedom as an artist in a society that confined the lives of African Americans. The importance of this

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649 Words | 3 Pages

In the United States of America Police Agencies are broken down into a few major categories; such as Federal Agency, State Patrol, County Sheriff and Municipal or Metro Department. One of the agency that I was interested in a was the D.C Metro Police Department. My interest in the structure of the department was based on the many different federal agency and how it affects their operational needs based on the many different jurisdictions in that one confined area. In the District of Columbia, they are about 35 different agencies comprised of Federal, State, County, Municipal and College Police officers. There are several different bureaus along with specialized units that make up the Metropolitan Police Department.

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1409 Words | 6 Pages

Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langton Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as allusion and imagery to develop the theme of the poem. Starting in stanzas four to six, Langston uses four very famous rivers to trace back on where it all began. Throughout these stanzas he develops allusion because he traces back on to history and state that everyone are historically equal. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

The possible metaphor of how a flood devastates a village could be compared to how the new Europeans pushed the Native Americans out of their homelands and sent them farther west. Even though this is a thing of the past, the true meaning of this poem could still be applied today. Everyone’s beliefs, values, and traditions are not all the same, and there will never be only one that everyone would agree to, but everyone’s way of life should be respected. Forcing the Native Americans out and killing them if they resisted prevented the preservation of ideas, which means that invaluable information and new ideas were also lost in the process. In the present day, we know how inhumane that was, but we should know that individuality is a very key aspect of our life and is something that we should

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955 Words | 4 Pages

People do not view Africa as a great world power due to its history of slaves and poverty. Africa will become a great nation like it was before the peace broken by European powers. Africa will return to its natural roots being free from violence and discrimination. The poem, Africa, relates to the harass of Africans and African-Americans being seen as a lower class even in modern time. This poem repeats in America with black injustice crimes, ripping black culture to modernized.

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