“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Disney Book Group, New York, 2009 (written in 1920), 32 pages, grades junior high and above.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of intense musical and literary genius in the 1920s. It corresponded to the Great Migration, the massive exodus of African Americans from the South to northern cities after World War I.
The Harlem Renaissance was centered in the New York borough of Harlem, and gave the country vibrant music, art and brilliant writers such as James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes.
Born in Joplin, Mo., Hughes eventually moved to Harlem and became a primary writer and spokesman for the movement. The Harlem Renaissance celebrated the beauty and strength of African American culture and rejected such demeaning practices as “blackface” in movies and plays.
As a 17-year-old, Hughes penned “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” one of the signature poems of the Harlem Renaissance. This brief poem is a work of genius and tells the story of the incredible strength and hope of African and African American people’s life experiences and struggles.
Hughes begins narrating the poem by describing his knowledge and understanding of rivers. These rivers are older than civilization. He poignantly creates an image of life-giving rivers carrying water and the human body carrying life giving blood. All of life has a connectedness. Looking back throughout history, he views himself bathing in the Euphrates River when the world was young.
Next, he sees a peaceful time when people could rest beside the Congo River. During this happy period, family life developed in a loving way.
But life is shattered by a long period of suffering, beginning with the raising of the pyramids along the Nile River. It continued with more suffering beside the Mississippi River. But throughout these painful periods, Hughes can hear the Mississippi River singing a promise of hope and a better future. This begins when Abraham Lincoln floats down the Mississippi River on a trading expedition. The magnificent beauty of the Mississippi River continues to instruct the narrator about the spiritual splendor of creation. This process deepens everyone’s understanding of nature and the society we live in. The conclusion of the poem draws all of these experiences together. Hughes tells how he has known the depths and life giving qualities of rivers. All the experiences near these rivers has instructed and deepened him. By the end of the poem, his “soul has grown deep like the rivers” and has been transformed.
The illustrations by E.B. Lewis are moving testimonies to this great poem. Like the poem, they are both heartbreaking and triumphant. Hughes never overtly talks about racial matters in the poem, but the entire tenor of the work instructs readers on the subject. There is not an angry tone in the poetry either. The characters in the poem love, live, endure and are transformed. Like the rivers described, their humanity deepens and their souls are enlightened.
I strongly encourage you to read the edition being reviewed. The reason for this recommendation is that the illustrations by E.B. Lewis are awe-inspiring and beautifully compliment the poem.
I hope that you get a chance to read this magnificent poem and share this compelling book with younger members of your family.
