Write a Critical appreciation of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

Langston Hughes wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” while on a train bound for Mexico. He had just graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 18 years. When his train crossed the Mississippi River he was inspired by its beauty and majesty. He was also reminded of its role in sustaining slavery in 1 America. He wrote it immediately. It was in 1920.

“The Negro Speaks of America” is one of the most famous poems by Langston Hughes. It was published in Crisis, a magazine of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) in 1921, a year after its composition. It is a very important poem since it celebrates the voice and soul of the black community in a time when racial intolerance, injustice, and inequality in America were prominent aspects of social and political life. Through this poem, Hughes helped to inspire and unite the black community when their voice was not appreciated by a predominantly white society. Hughes became the official poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance which was a movement of black people in America for realising their political and social equality with white people. 

The poem connects the soul and heritage of the African-American community to the four biggest rivers in the world—the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi—proving the ancientness of the Negro race, and thereby claiming equal rights and privileges with all other races in America. 

The speaker of the poem claims that he has known rivers that are as ancient as the world—the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. They are older than the human beings on the earth.

His soul has grown deep like the rivers. He bathed in the Euphrates at the beginning of the creation. The Congo lulled him to sleep on its bank. He witnessed the raising of the pyramids on the land. of the Nile, and he heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down it on his way to New Orleans. He found the bosom of Mississippi turning golden. He has known all these rivers, and his soul has grown deep like the rivers. ‘ The speaker of the poem is not the poet himself, nor anybody as a single man. The speaker is representative of all the Negroes of all places and all times. The race of the Negroes has been as old as any other race of human beings on the face of the earth, and as such, they deserve to be treated as equal to all other humans. 

The theme of the poem is the proving of the ancientness of the Negroes, and an indirect claim for their equality with the other human races. The poet has known rivers that are as ancient as the worldThe Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. They are older than the human beings on the earth. His soul has grown deep like the rivers. He bathed in the Euphrates at the beginning of the creation of human beings. The Congo lulled him to sleep on its bank. He witnessed the pyramids on the land of the Nile and heard the singing of the Mississippi: when Abe Lincoln went down it on his way to New Orleans. He found the bosom of the Mississippi turning ‘golden when Lincoln had the first inspiration for the abolition of slavery. The “I” in the poem is the “Negro” who speaks. He is not a single person. He is representative of all the Negroes of all places and all times. The race of the negroes is as old as any other human race on the earth, and as such, they deserve to be treated as equal to all other races. 

It is a very important poem since it celebrates the voice and soul of the black American Community in a time when racial intolerance, injustice, and inequality in America were the prominent aspects of social and political life there. Through this poem, Hughes helped to inspire and unite the black community when their voice was not appreciated or accepted by a predominantly white community. The poem. connects the soul and heritage of the African-American community to the four ancient rivers in the world and thereby proves the ancientness of the Negro race, so that the Negroes may justifiably claim equal rights and privileges with the whites. O. Jemie makes an appreciative comment on the poem. He says, “It is a sonorous evocation of transcendent essences so ancient as to appear timeless, predating human existence, longer than human memory.” Several figures of speech, like similes, metaphors, symbols, and other rhetorical devices have been effectively used. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”. The soul of the Negro here symbolizes the collective soul of all Negroes of all times and all places. As a fiver grows deeper and deeper with the passage of time, this soul has grown deeper and deeper with the passage of time. The soul’s. bathing in the Euphrates, being lulled to sleep on the bank of the Congo, and it's looking upon the Nile and hearing the singing of the. Mississipi is an extended metaphor. The soul has been conceived of as a human being that does all those things. The expressions “I’ve known” and “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” are examples of anaphora. These rhetorical figures help emphasize the poet’s points and unite different parts of the poetic conception of the theme. Sound devices like assonance and consonance are effectively used. The free verse used in the poem is reminiscent of Whitman and Carl Sandburg. It promotes freedom of expression of the subtle nuances involved in the theme. The rhetorical and prosodic devices used in the poem have made the communication of the poet’s ideas compact, but effective on a wide scale