“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes

Connecting the theme of migration and history.

Sometimes, a masterpiece is born in a single moment of transit.

Today on Stanza & Story, we turn to Langston Hughes, the leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Remarkably, Hughes wrote this poem when he was only seventeen years old, scribbling it on the back of an envelope while crossing the Mississippi River on a train.

In this piece, titled “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921), Hughes connects the soul of his people to the cradle of civilization itself. He juxtaposes the muddy banks of the Mississippi with the ancient waters of the Euphrates, Congo, and Nile. It is a poem about deep time, ancestry, and survival.

Featured above is a young Langston Hughes. Looking at him, we see the calm confidence of a poet who claimed his heritage not just as American, but as global and eternal.

---

Langston Hughes’ vision of the soul follows:

"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.