Caroling Dusk/The Negro Speaks of Rivers

by Langston Hughes

For other versions of this work, see The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS^[1]

I’ve known rivers:I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the 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 to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

1. By permission of and special arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., authorized publishers.