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A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
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A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 19, 2016
ISBN9781535838610
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

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    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" - Gale

    1

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers

    Langston Hughes

    1921

    Introduction

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers was the first poem published in Langston Hughes’s long writing career. The poem first appeared in the magazine Crisis in June of 1921 and was subsequently published in Hughes’s first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues, in 1926. Written when he was only 19, The Negro Speaks of Rivers treats themes Hughes explored all his life: the experiences of African Americans in history and black identity and pride. Hughes claimed that 90 percent of his work attempted to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America. Through images of rivers, African civilizations, and an I who speaks for the race, Hughes argues for the depth, wisdom, and endurance of the African soul. The form of the poem reinforces these themes. Using a collective, mythic I, long lines, and repeated phrases, Hughes invokes the poetry of Walt Whitman, another bard who sang America. Onwuchekwa Jemie notes in his book Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry, however, that unlike Whitman, Hughes "celebrates not the America that is but the America that is to

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