The Negro Speaks Of Rivers Essay, Research Paper

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS

1. How does the rubric impact your reading of and response to the verse form?

2. What is the verse form about?

I could merely understand the significance of the rubric of the verse form The Negro Speaks of Rivers after I gave my first sentiment about it to my English professor. The verse form has a simple, yet carefully chosen usage of linguistic communication, but the intricate thoughts and the message the verse form sends to the readers surprised me.

My first feeling about the rubric and the verse form itself was that the writer wrote about the memoirs of a captured slave. The surprising factor was that Hughes wrote about different Negro societies and their presence in history.

When Hughes wrote the 2nd line of his verse form I ve known rivers every bit ancient as the universe, he wanted to demo the readers that the different Negro societies were present since the first yearss of the early civilisations. The word river was used to typify the waies of each society and their geographical locations in the universe. Pay attending when Hughes mentioned the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The names represent the different times in history and the geographical location of each society mentioned in the verse form.

With all simpleness, the verse form is a powerful message to the reader every bit good as a sum-up of the history of the Negro.

3. What makes the verse form interesting to read?

Simplification was the key to the verse form s entreaty. It contributed to the entreaty of the rubric and the message the writer wanted to direct to his readers. Hughes used his words and thoughts carefully to lucubrate his verse form, but the manner he simplified 1000s of old ages of history in merely 10 lines of verse form was the most important property to his work.

This simplification was clear in lines six and seven where I could see the passage of times from the antediluvian Egypt ( about 2000 3000 B.C ) to America in the mid 1800 s. These two lines gave me a brief thought of the societal and cultural alterations that the Negro underwent, but Hughes didn Ts have setup the verse form in a formal mode nor depict the passage to capture the reader s attending.

4. Who is the talker? What function does the talker have in the verse form?

Another interesting feature about the verse form is that it doesn Ts have merely one talker ; it has 1000000s. Hughes surprised the reader one time once more with another simplification. This clip he combined the voices of 1000000s of persons from the different societies in one individual voice stating a narrative.

This narrative captured the different minutes in history lived by each society. The first societies described their freedom and artlessness when they said, I bathed in the Euphrates when district attorney

wns were immature. Then, a new society described its minutes of glorification when it ruled the universe ; I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. The new coevals, nevertheless, didn T state a beautiful narrative as the others did. But the result was one of hope, I heard the vocalizing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to/ New Orleans, and I ve seen its boggy bosom turn all aureate in the sundown.

This peculiar line described the autumn to bondage and the new freedom achieved with the Emancipation Proclamation, by Abraham Lincoln, on April 16th, 1862. The pronoun I in each sentence to stand for each society as a whole, non as persons. Again, the careful usage of simple words in the verse form was effectual to depict to the reader what Hughes wanted to show in the voices of each society.

5. What consequence does the verse form have on you as a reader? Do you believe the verse form intended to hold such consequence?

The verse form has given me a new position towards the Negro and its civilization, every bit good as the troubles that they have endured for centuries. The writer s purpose was to make the same reaction in the readers. He wanted the readers to understand the fortunes that led to the autumn of the ancient societies who ruled the universe at one point, and visualise the new position born with the new coevalss born with the Emancipation Proclamation.

I ve known rivers: / Ancient, twilight rivers. , is the voice of the new coevalss depicting the history of their sires to the readers, and when Hughes wrote, My psyche has grown deep like the rivers, he wanted to state the reader that the civilization of the Negro is every bit strong as the river currents, and that each river in the verse form represents the different Negro civilizations and their influence in the universe today. These two lines summarize the verse form, and one could state that they are portion of the shutting statements of an essay.

6. What is typical about the poet s usage of linguistic communication? Which words particularly contribute to the verse form s consequence?

The most typical characteristic about the verse form was the usage of simple words to show it s complexness. Even with the usage of simple words, the thought presented by Hughes were carefully put on paper so the reader would be able to capture the message Hughes wanted to direct.

When he wrote and I ve seen it s boggy bosom turn all aureate in the sundown, Hughes described the new beginning in lives of the Negro when Abraham Lincolns freed the slaves. The word muddy non merely represented the boggy Waterss of the Mississippi, but besides the unsure minutes in the history of the Negro.

Bosom was chosen to typify the Black Marias of the slaves, and turn all aureate in the sundown was the new feeling of freedom every bit good as the new life the Negro would hold from that minute on.