[The Negro Speaks of Rivers]

This poem stood out to me because it gave me this eerie and exciting feeling of an immortal narrator that has witnessed the entire span of the earth’s history. The poem says, “My soul has grown deep like rivers”(2084) This line drew a connection between this soul and the earth itself. The poem showed a deep connection and love between the narrator and natures elements in a way that makes me think that I only understand and perceive the complexities of the earth on a very surface level compared to the possibilities…

[Drums]

In this poem I took the beating of the drum to represent the human heart beat. The poem is a bit dark throughout but the anxiety rises with the words, “Until time is lost//and there is no air//and space itself//Is nothing nowhere,”(2085) The concept of nothingness is startling to contemplate and then the speed of the poem picks up with repetitive lines of exclamation paralleling with the fast heartbeat of a cornered animal. The beat of the drum shows that life is quick and fleeting and before you are ready it will be gone. This poem amazed me in its simplicity. None of the messages I took away from the poem were explicitly stated, but I could feel the emotions with the few words that were given. Langston Hughes has this way of manipulating language into a magical construction through simplicity.

[Negro]

This poem is formed like a historical sandwich. Let me expand upon that…

The beginning stanza is a statement filled with depth and pride, the second stanza reflects on the pain endured throughout history, those inner two stanzas are the meat of the poem filled with achievements and accomplishments, the second to last stanza reflects back on the pain, and the poem ends with a stanza referring back to pride and strength. Again, I really enjoyed this theme of connecting the narrators darkness to the darkness of night. White-supremacists and racist instituations have often used the dark skin tone of another human as an excuse to label them as less. This poem equates darkness with nature. Nature is the force that rules over all of us. There is not a person in the world who could escape nature if it wanted to take their life. Darkness is beauty, depth, natural. Hugh’s gives the concept of darkness a powerful and graceful connotation.