Negro Speaks of Rivers

Negro Speaks of Rivers

Ive known rivers:

Ive known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human rivers

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 Ive seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset

Ive known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes