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Hughes’s poem focuses on major moments of success, innovation, and promise in history to trace the legacy of his people. Hughes establishes this early in the poem with the image of human blood in human veins: Just as human blood flows through the body, the rivers flow through time, and just as all humans share the same blood, these rivers share the same waters. The imagery draws a connection between the earliest civilizations in Asia and the modern world in North America by showing how, just like the different parts of a river, all experience is connected in some way.
Hughes also focuses on positive imagery to celebrate the lineage he is identifying. He does not talk about slavery, racism, segregation, or the other negative experiences imposed upon Black people during his time. While such suffering is connoted by the geographic locations and the language in the poem, it is not the poem’s focus. Instead, Hughes highlights the great successes of his lineage: From the emergence of agriculture and civilization in Mesopotamia to the raising of the pyramids in Egypt to the abolition of slavery in the 1800s, he focuses on the points in the river that left lasting positive impacts on the present.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes