The Negro Speaks of 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 toNew Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in thesunset.
I’ve known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.
Words in this poem
- congo n.
- Black tea, of higher grade (finer leaf and less dusty) than the present bohea. See Tea. [Chin. kung-foo labor.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- orleans n.
- A cloth made of worsted and cotton, -- used for wearing apparel. [So called from the city of Orléans, in France.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Negro Speaks of Rivers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The weary blues, Project Gutenberg ebook #74745; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, in The Weary Blues (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #74745, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hughes-weary-blues/the-negro-speaks-of-rivers.html, id L01509.
Form and metre
The Negro Speaks of Rivers is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ---AA- young · sleep · it · toA · theA · sunset
- 2 AA riversA · riversA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. | 11 | ····˘/˘···· |
| I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. | 15 | ·········/˘˘··· |
| I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to | 18 | ···/˘···˘/˘··/˘··· |
| New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the | 18 | ·/˘˘····/˘/˘··/˘·· |
| sunset. | 2 | /· |
| I’ve known rivers: | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Ancient, dusky rivers. | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.