American Literature / Unit 13 AML 1206 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
Captions available
The idea
Written when Hughes was still a teenager, the poem names the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile and the Mississippi, and says the speaker's soul has grown deep like the rivers. It claims a history far older than American slavery for the people the poem speaks for.
In practice
Four rivers, and a soul grown deep.
Where people slip
The claim is a lineage, stated in geography.
Your place on the trail
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