1. The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
TPCASTT Analysis

2. Title (T)
What do the words of the title suggest to you? What denotations are presented in the title? “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

3. Paraphrase
Translate the poem in your own words. What is the poem about?
The speaker is acknowledging the life force of various rivers throughout history.

4. Connotation: Form
Free verse- This poem has no regular meter or rhythm, and not set rhyme scheme

5. Connotation: Diction
-Ancient
-Deep
-Lulled
Dawn/sunset

6. Connotation: Imagery “Flow of human blood in human veins…”
“Muddy Bosom turn all gold in the sunset…”
“Ancient, dusky Rivers…”

7. Connotation: Point-of-view
Langston Hughes writes in First person. It is important to differentiate the author from the speaker. What do we know about the speaker? What are clues that indicate the speaker’s persona?

8. Connotation: Details “Bathed in the Euphrates…”
“Built my hut near the congo…”
“Looked upon the nile…”
“heard the singing of the Mississippi…”

9. Connotations: Allusions
Euphrates: Cradle of civilization
Congo: Some of the first African communities grew along the banks of this River
Nile: Winds through Egypt, evoking images of the great pyramids
Mississippi, Abraham Lincoln, New Orleans: Slavery and the slave trade

10. Connotation: Symbolism
Rivers are seen a primitive life force that connects the past, present, and future

11. Connotation: Figurative Language
“Ancient as the World” -Simile
Older than the Flow of hUman Blood”- simile
“My soul has grown deep like rivers”- Simile

12. Connotation: Other Devices
“I’ve known Rivers” – Repetition
“My Soul has grown deep like rivers”- Repetition
“I bathed”- “I built”- “I Looked”-”I heard”- Anaphora

13. Attitude: Tone
There is a sense of awe and respect in the author’s tone that is reflected by the use of the allusions, words like “Ancient”, and the imagery of “Human blood in human veins.”

14. Shifts
The main stanza of the poem, through the use of Anaphora, emphasizes the Theme of fluidity of a life force, by establishing a rhythm, almost like the current of a river.

15. Title (Again)
The Negro (representing the negro people universally) speaks of rivers (the interconnectedness of lives throughout time)

16. Theme
Life is but a link in a perpetual chain, much like a river. Those who have come before us contribute to the depth of who we are today.