Jawaban:

Summary & Analysis

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"The Negro Speaks of River" was written in 1920 by the American poet Langston Hughes. One of the key poems of a literary movement called the "Harlem Renaissance," "The Negro Speaks of River" traces black history from the beginning of human civilization to the present, encompassing both triumphs (like the construction of the Egyptian pyramids) and horrors (like American slavery). The poem argues that the black "soul" has incorporated all of this historical experience, and in the process has become "deep." The poem thus suggests that black cultural identity is continuous, that it stretches across the violence and displacement of slavery to connect with the past—and that black people have made vital, yet often neglected contributions to human civilization.

Read the full text of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Summary

I have been familiar with a lot of rivers. I have been familiar with rivers that are as old as the planet itself, older than blood pumping through people's veins.

My soul has become very deep, just like the rivers I know.

I went swimming in the Euphrates River when human civilization was still young and even sunrises were new. I built my home near the Congo River and its murmuring waters helped me fall asleep. I saw the Nile and helped build the Pyramids on its shore. And I heard the Mississippi River sound as if it were singing, when Abraham Lincoln traveled on it to New Orleans. And I’ve seen the surface of that muddy river, like a person's chest, reflect the sunset, turning gold.

I've been familiar with a lot of rivers: very old, dark rivers.

My soul has become very deep, just like the rivers I know.