"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" was Langston Hughes's first great poem. He wrote it during the summer after he graduated from high school and it was published a short time later. Hughes considered Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman to be the greatest American poets. In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Hughes follows the model of Whitman's "Song of Myself," using a first-person speaker to express the experience of an entire community.

Langston Hughes reads The Negro Speaks of Rivers

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921)

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.

Annotated Version:

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921)

I've known rivers (rivers symbolize his ancestors):

I've known rivers ancient as the world(simile) and older than

the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers(Simile).

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young (personification)

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep (preslavery living).

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it (references slavery in Egypt).

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln (American slavery)

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom (simile) turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers (simile).

General meaning: Essentially - the rivers Hughes speaks of are his ancestors and he can trace their path over time - paving the way for him. He feels a connection to them - they are his veins - he gets his life from them.