Poet of the Day: Langston Hughes

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes, 1902.

(via http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722)

CLICK HERE FOR OPEN YALE LECTURE ON THE POEM.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:

I've 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 I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.