The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

Ive known rivers:

Ive 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 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