Langston Hughes Poems
Langston Hughes born in Missouri around 1902 wrote many poems, which were evolved around the African American people. Rejected by the African American community for his thoughts, Hughes felt a deep sense of passion to poetically write of the struggles faced by many impoverished African Americans. During the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes used poetry to convey the African American cultural through a rhythm and blues style about dreams, suffering, the soul, and America.
Langston Hughes expresses his concerns of deferred dreams, which were lost during a depressive time in a short masterpiece called “Harlem”. This poem was published in 1951 when blacks (African American’s) were still fighting the war on having equal …show more content…
I believe that he is writing this poem in third person because the speaker introduces himself in the first line by telling us that he has known rivers and that his soul has come to be as deep as a river. For instance in lines two and three it states, “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the/ flow of human blood in human veins”(Roessel, Rampersad 24). I believe rivers should be considered immortal because I can only imagine that, deep rivers are indestructible. Humans may have been around for a really long time, but they have to die in due time, unlike rivers on the other hand, they continue flowing without ever coming to an end. If only rivers had eyes, we would be able to see the realms of peace and chaos that they must have seen in their lifetime. In fact one could argue that rivers must be pretty wise. Then he explains to us just how that transformation took place. He must be one ancient man, because he has been around for thousands of years “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young”( Roessel, Rampersad 8) , or could this simply entail that he has an “old soul”. To me, an old soul is someone whose spirit, or soul, has been through numerous iterations in life, on earth. They are called an old soul because they have already been through a lot of things in their lives on earth that make them wiser, less materialistic, more contemplative, more introspective, less judgmental, more spiritual. I have also noticed that they often are given more intense hardships than most people, because they can handle it, or it could be that they are moving on to higher planes in the spiritual world. “He used to go swimming the Euphrates River when Earth was just a baby” (Roessel, Rampersad 8). This verse lets me know that, not only does our speaker know old rivers, but he grew up with them too. It is possible that he may have been born in a
Langston Hughes born in Missouri around 1902 wrote many poems, which were evolved around the African American people. Rejected by the African American community for his thoughts, Hughes felt a deep sense of passion to poetically write of the struggles faced by many impoverished African Americans. During the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes used poetry to convey the African American cultural through a rhythm and blues style about dreams, suffering, the soul, and America.
Langston Hughes expresses his concerns of deferred dreams, which were lost during a depressive time in a short masterpiece called “Harlem”. This poem was published in 1951 when blacks (African American’s) were still fighting the war on having equal …show more content…
I believe that he is writing this poem in third person because the speaker introduces himself in the first line by telling us that he has known rivers and that his soul has come to be as deep as a river. For instance in lines two and three it states, “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the/ flow of human blood in human veins”(Roessel, Rampersad 24). I believe rivers should be considered immortal because I can only imagine that, deep rivers are indestructible. Humans may have been around for a really long time, but they have to die in due time, unlike rivers on the other hand, they continue flowing without ever coming to an end. If only rivers had eyes, we would be able to see the realms of peace and chaos that they must have seen in their lifetime. In fact one could argue that rivers must be pretty wise. Then he explains to us just how that transformation took place. He must be one ancient man, because he has been around for thousands of years “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young”( Roessel, Rampersad 8) , or could this simply entail that he has an “old soul”. To me, an old soul is someone whose spirit, or soul, has been through numerous iterations in life, on earth. They are called an old soul because they have already been through a lot of things in their lives on earth that make them wiser, less materialistic, more contemplative, more introspective, less judgmental, more spiritual. I have also noticed that they often are given more intense hardships than most people, because they can handle it, or it could be that they are moving on to higher planes in the spiritual world. “He used to go swimming the Euphrates River when Earth was just a baby” (Roessel, Rampersad 8). This verse lets me know that, not only does our speaker know old rivers, but he grew up with them too. It is possible that he may have been born in a