The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes 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.

Analyzing Figurative language: “I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” This shows a simile. The simile is “I've known rivers ancient as the world. And the rivers are being compared to ancient human blood.

Imagery “I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.” This line paints a picture in our heads. The author is trying to say the river is like a young mother that feeds her young. Bosoms are female breast. This makes the river seem like a woman

Sound Devices The phrase “I've known rivers” is repeated three times in the poem. This is repetition.

Mood/Feeling The phrase “the flow of human blood in human veins” creates a creepy scary mood. Langston Hughes is comparing the river to human blood.

Message/Theme Langston Hughes is saying that he has known rivers older than the flow of human blood. Basically rivers are older than humans and he has seen many rivers in different countries.

Make a prediction I think there will be a river full of blood not water or maybe a character will imagine a river of blood like a woman in The Call of The Wild.

Atavism Sometimes in the open you look up where birds go by, or just nothing, and wait. A dim feeling comes you were like this once, there was air, and quiet; it was by a lake, or maybe a river you were alert as an otter and were suddenly born like the evening star into wide still worlds like this one you have found again, for a moment, in the open. Something is being told in the woods: aisles of shadow lead away; a branch waves; a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its path. A withheld presence almost speaks, but then retreats, rustles a patch of brush. You can feel the centuries ripple generations of wandering, discovering, being lost and found, eating, dying, being born. A walk through the forest strokes your fur, the fur you no longer have. And your gaze down a forest aisle is a strange, long plunge, dark eyes looking for home. For delicious minutes you can feel your whiskers wider than your mind, away out over everything. William Stafford

Figurative Language The phrase “alert as an otter” is an example of a simile. This simile is describing how alert you were. This is effective because otters are alert and aware creatures.

Imagery “a branch waves;” in this phrase I can see a branch on a tree that is swaying because of the wind.

Sound Devices N/A

Mood/Feeling I think the mood in this poem is frightened and timid. This is demonstrated in the phrase “sunlight slowly travels its path. A withheld presence almost speaks, but then retreats”. The presence almost speaks, but then timidly retreats.

Message/Theme The message is a peaceful, soothing, and relaxing mood. This is because there is a lot of imagery that paints a picture in your head.

Making a Prediction I think that in “The Call of the Wild” the main character will maybe be haunted by his ancestors just like the person in the story. The person in the story feels like he is in the presence of ghosts or spirits.