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Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

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Africans have both observed and taken part in critical historical events throughout time, as shown by "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which spans from the earliest stages of human culture up until American enslavement. The author, Langston Hughes, displays the persistence of African cultural roots despite centuries of slavery and oppression in America. The poem makes the case that people of African ancestry have been around throughout human history and have played a significant role in forming civilization. The author uses similes often in this poem to get this idea of persistence through to the reader. Rivers have a long and rich history. The speaker claims their "soul has grown deep like the rivers" (line 3). Hughes uses a simile to create …show more content…

Hughes uses a free verse method to draw attention to the lines of the poem and their meaning rather than focusing on the rhyme scheme. However, when using a free verse method of writing, the poem typically flows smoothly and has little to no enjambments. This typical flow of free verse poems is not the case in The Negro Speaks of Rivers; Hughes uses enjambments on every line making the poem read more formally and slowly. Drawing further attention to each line through periods makes the lines appear as statements rather than flowing …show more content…

The author does so to show how the culture and people have been relevant throughout early parts that belong to history to more recent, here in the united states. Hughes writes about the Euphrates river, which happens to be one of the most historically ancient rivers in the world and has been around since some of the first recorded histories belong to humankind. He then talks about the Congo, another old river credited with being around during the early accounts that belong to humanity. Next, Hughes wrote about how they happened to be at the Nile and watched the pyramids go up (line 6), which shows that African culture happened to be around 2550 years B.C. Line 6 is followed by speaking about how the speaker has been to the Mississippi. At the same time, Abraham Lincoln went down to New Orleans, which mentions Africans and their forced involvement with slavery and their struggles to maintain their ancient culture during their transition to America. This example is more of a modern historical event representing the culture that has carried on to modern-day

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He was 20 2. What rivers does Langston Hughes mention and how do they connect the past to the present? Euphrates, Congo, Nile, Mississippi.

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From the Euphrates River where the earliest African civilization begun to the Mississippi River where African Americans received equality in America, the heritage of African Americans flow like multiple ancient rivers that flourished human civilization. To be more exact, Hughes drew similarities between the old African race to the rivers that were flourishing by the African race. Hughes has shown pride in his heritage and he expressed the values of the ancient African and African American race. Hughes

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Where he “Bathed in the Euphrates,” built his “hut near the Congo,” “Looked upon the Nile,” and “Heard the singing of the Mississippi,”. Secondly you read “I, Too” and as you read you can see that hughes is still speaking in the tone of an African American but is in the phase of being a slave. For they send him “to eat in the kitchen When company comes,” since slaves were never given to the privilege to eat at the table. They were to just work and stay low-key. But the slave knows that one day they will no longer be oppressed and will “be at the table When company comes.”

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An example of the author conveying the theme of community in this work is, “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.” This line from the poem shows how the figurative language describes the dark past of African American History and how people have been there to see its dark past and how it’s blossoming into a bright future. The Negro Speaks of Rivers is yet another one of the many works from the Harlem Renaissance that conveys the importance of working

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Hughes effectively describes the river at different times to display how slavery and white society tainted the stream and prevented it from flowing freely. The speaker links himself to his ancestors and reveals how he knows “rivers as ancient as the world” (Hughes 2). Throughout the passage, Hughes illustrates other rivers with imagery varying from huts that he slept in near the Congo to great pyramids that towered over the Nile. The greatness surrounding each river symbolizes the significance and proficiency of black society without white involvement, which readers can use to trace the history of blacks from Africa to America.

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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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The only source of symbolism in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” comes from the line saying, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”(CITE STORY). This statement

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In “Life on the Mississippi” Mark Twain provides readers a journey through the famous Mississippi river giving them specific details and experiences throughout his journey. During the story Twain gives the reader an inside as to how his emotions change throughout the journey,But his perspective changes as the story goes on due to his encounters along the Mississippi which ultimately changes his entire perspective on the Mississippi river. In the beginning of the story Twain tells his views and describes the river and everytime he describes it he becomes more and more fascinated with the river. The first thing that was amazing to him was the reflection off the water and the steamboats that rode past him.

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In the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes, the speaker is talking to the public especially towards the black and white community. In the first few lines, the speaker claims that they know rivers as old as the ancient world, saying that they have seen or lived a long time in history. This implies that the speaker has experience or wisdom because if someone’s been in the world for that long they must know a thing or two about the cycle of life and how it works. This suggests that these lines are from the experiences or memories (flashbacks) of other people, most likely from African Americans. The fact that the author uses past tense in this poem makes it a reflective and reminiscing tone as it describes history along with the

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Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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Therefore, the whole theme about this poem is everything is a mystery and a question and it will take years to potentially to find an answer. To begin, Langston shows in his first stanza his extreme miss for Africa and how much his history as an African American man has changed ever since his ancestors are officially part of the United states. Langston begins stating “ So long, So far away Is Africa. Not even memories alive Save those that history books create.” Langston explains how

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In the essential sentence, the musician is recognized as an African American male referred by the term Negro, a term that is now out of date, yet was current when this work was formed. The source Poetry for Students, explains the theme of the poem as “Black Culture.” Hughes’ poem gives an image of sadness and pain. The poem expresses the culture of the old ages and the pain that the musician is dealing

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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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