The Harlem Renaissance, a period spanning roughly the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, is frequently referred to as a literary movement, but the movement also encompassed a great explosion of African-American expression in many venues that celebrated the unique heritage, art forms, sights, and sounds that were the African-American experience. It was through the literature that much of this expression came to the attention of the rest of the nation, enabling it to have the tremendous impact it did on its own as well as future generations. One of the literary artists that gained the most recognition during this period was Langston Hughes. Hughes came into his professional years just as the Harlem Renaissance was becoming recognized on a more national scale and worked to reinforce the proud heritage from which he came in poems such as “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Hughes manages to capture a sense of the long history and cultural memories that run through the black people. He does this by employing metaphors that paint an image for his readers: “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow / of human blood in human veins”. This statement brings to mind the concept of the rivers as the lifeblood of the planet. This metaphor immediately causes the reader to think on a much grander scale than they are accustomed to, which forces them to consider the vast span of time that has taken place between the time when the rivers started flowing and the time when mankind first started walking the planet.
That these first men were his kind of men (in other words, black men) is emphasized in the first-person association with those places that have long been recognized as the cradle of man – the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile. By invoking these locations, Hughes takes his readers on a whirlwind journey from the birth of man to the deepest, darkest jungles to the birthplace of civilization itself, emphasizing all along that he has been there, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”. Through natural progression, he remembers each step that has been taken, including the last, when he “heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went / down to New Orleans”. In this last image, he includes the years of slavery and oppression as well as freedoms won and the birthplace of jazz, thoughts that lead toward the future just as the mighty river turns “all golden in the sunset”. With such a long line of traceable history and exploration, creativity and ability to survive, perseverance and innovation, he can indeed claim that his “soul has grown deep like the rivers”.
With his careful linking of brilliant creativity, highlighting not only his own abilities but the abilities of his fellow black men as well, and his sense of history and perseverance of the race, it is no surprise that Langston Hughes emerged as the spokesperson for the Harlem Renaissance. He celebrated his people’s accomplishments even while he acknowledged their weaknesses, whether it was through a lack of opportunity or a lack of educated (white man’s) language. His refusal to couch his poems in the language of the educated white man enabled him to capture more of the culture and diversity of the people he was trying to expose to the world and served as a role model for younger generations who also felt the need to expose the trials and triumphs of their race.