Key Facts

• Title: The Negro Speaks of Rivers
• Poet: Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
• Written Date: Hughes wrote this poem when he was only 17
• Publication Date: June 1921, in The Crisis magazine. Later, it was included in Hughes’ 1926 collection The Weary Blues.
• Form, Meter, and Rhyme Scheme: Free verse (no regular rhyme or meter)
• Total Lines/Stanza: 10 lines, divided into several uneven parts (no fixed stanza form)
• Tone: Proud, deep, spiritual