1a. What has the speaker known?
2a. What specific rivers does the speaker mention in the poem?
3a. What has happened to the speaker's soul?
4a. Identify two sentences in the selection that build on the simple sentence "I've known rivers."
5a. Decide whether the use of "rivers" is an effective vehicle for the theme of the poem.
1b. Who is the speaker in this poem?
2b. What accomplishments and experiences are associated with each of the rivers in the poem?
3b. What has caused the speaker's soul to deepen?
4b. What is the speaker saying about the age and experience of Africans and people of African descent?
5b. Compare and contrast the black experience in "We Wear the Mask" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
Refrain and Effect.What refrains are used in the poem? What is the effect of the refrains?
Simile. Complete the chart below with a simile from the selection. Indicate the tenor and the vehicle. An example has been done for you.
1. My soul has grown deep like the rivers 2.
1. soul
1. rivers
How is the soul like a river? What qualities do the two parts share?
1a. What does the speaker sing?
2a. Who sends the speaker to eat in the kitchen when company comes?
3a. What will change tomorrow?
4a. Identify the details in the poem that suggest a view of America as one family.
5a. In what ways, if any, is the speaker's lack of anger understandable?
1b. What does it mean to "sing America"?
2b. Who are "they"?
3b. What does eating at the table symbolize?
4b. Why does the speaker identify himself with America?
5b. Imagine you are the speaker and things have changed. Do you still harbor feelings of resentment against "them" for their years of discrimination against you?
Tone. What is the tone of the poem?
Point of View. Review the cluster chart you made for Literary Tools. What is the point of view of the poem? Is the speaker describing his own experience, or does he speak for others?
1. Eating in the kitchen symbolizes segregation and discrimination in "I, too, sing America." Write a free verse poem that uses another symbol to express segregation and discrimination. Use your own paper as necessary.
2. Write two lines of the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," adding two rivers and events to the middle stanza to deepen the expression of the African-American experience. For example, what river did many slaves cross to gain freedom in the North?
3. In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," the speaker says "My soul has grown deep like the rivers." Write a character sketch of a person with such a soul. How does this person hold himself or herself? How does this person treat others? What struggles is this person engaged in? What dreams does this person have for his or her race? What sacrifices are made by this person to achieve his or her goals? Use your own paper as necessary.
1. Langston Hughes attended high school in Cleveland and to publish fiction and poetry in his high school magazine.
2. For more than twenty years, Hughes wrote for the Chicago Defender, in which he introduced the character "Simple" and to make him the heart of his column.
3. Hughes said "I've known rivers" and his soul has grown deep like the rivers.
4. In 1932, the year Hughes lived and was working in the former Soviet Union, he wrote his most radical poetry.
5. Hughes published dozens of books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and was translating books by Lorca, Mistral, Guillen, and Roumain.
Using Reference Works. For each subject in the following list, identify the type of reference work in which you can find out what you need to know.
1. location of the Congo River
2. history of the Nile River
3. news story about the most recent Mississippi River flood
4. quotations about rivers
5. name of the river with which the Euphrates unites
Writing a Blues Poem.With a partner, write your own blues poem.
Researching African Civilizations.Research an ancient African civilization. Use the following lines to take notes.
