18 pages • 36 minutes read
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
This poem contains no set metrical pattern or rhyme scheme. It is written entirely in free verse with lines that are all end-stopped, meaning there is no inherent enjambment in the poem—the lines are enjambed only when the print format necessitates as much, with a narrower page-width creating those line breaks. Lines 2 and 7 especially are unconventionally long, but if printed on a wide enough page, there is no enjambment. There are two possible reasons for this unorthodox form: the influence of Walt Whitman, and the rejection of traditionally European poetic forms.
Whitman was one of Hughes’s biggest influences, and his style famously included long lines, no set rhymes or meter, and everyday language. Hughes follows that approach in this and many of his other poems.
The rejection of classical European poetic structures, however, is rooted in the contemporary debate among African American writers, who questioned whether they should engage the European tradition or reject it. While there was never a clear consensus, Hughes very much rejected traditional form, preferring free verse and formal experimentation.
Point of View
One of the poem’s most salient aspects is its repeated use of the first-person singular “I.” Hughes is not talking about himself when he says he has “known rivers ancient as the world” (Line 2). The poet hadn’t personally seen all of these rivers, and the line suggests a perspective that transcends individual experience.
Hughes isn’t unique in his use of speakers who embody and express collective experiences, as his forerunner Whitman was known for this technique as well. For example, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” uses a first-person singular speaker, but this “I” is neither Whitman himself nor any other singular person. The speaker transcends individual experience to embody the collective and universal voice of Americans. Hughes continues this tradition but builds upon it with the poem’s title. Because the title uses a singular noun to describe its speaker, one might think the poem is from a single perspective, but Hughes is playing off of how the singular “negro” was used to refer to all African Americans. The poet’s reappropriation of the word restores its dignity and personhood for a positive message.
Repetition
Hughes uses repetition throughout the poem, especially at the beginning of lines. All but one line begins with the words “I” (Lines 4, 5, 6, 7), “I’ve” (Lines 1, 2, 8), or “My” (Lines 2, 10), and many of the lines connect that subject to a simple verb: “I bathed” (Line 4), “I built” (Line 5), “I looked” (Line 6), “I heard” (Line 7). This particular form of repetition is anaphora, the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of neighboring poetic lines. The effect of anaphora is typically emphatic, but in Hughes’s poem, the grammatical simplicity also makes the lines more accessible, and the poem eventually resembles a kind of list.
These elements are also meaningful because they evoke a tradition of folklore. The common diction and repetitive cadence make the poem easier to speak aloud, and the invocation of an oral tradition adds to the tone of wisdom and experience, accentuating how the speaker’s soul has grown ancient. Additionally, Hughes’s poetry often emulates certain aural qualities of jazz, an art form that needs to be heard to be fully understood.
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By Langston Hughes
