Rivers a Source of Life
... But his writings did not only depict the hardships of African-American life, they also painted pictures of a group finding its own voice and place in a weird, expanding country that pretended they didnt exist. ... It was then, at 19, when he wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," a touching poem conjuring up the images of his roots and heritage, and recognizing all the rivers of the world as one and the same. ... The poem begins, “I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. The rivers symbolizes the linkage of all human life from the earliest time to the present. ... Hughes also uses water or the river as a metaphor for the source of life, they are the earthly analogues of eternity: deep, continuous, and mysterious. The rivers are named in the order of their association with black history. The poem traces the movement of black life from the Euphrates and Nile rivers in Africa to the Mississippi. Hughes subtly couches his admonishment of slavery and racism in the refrain, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.