The Negro Speaks of Rivers Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key locations, figures, and imagery found in Langston Hughes' poem.

Langston Hughes

The author of the poem 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers.'

Euphrates

The river where the speaker bathed when dawns were young.

Congo

The river near which the speaker built his hut and which lulled him to sleep.

Nile

The river the speaker looked upon and above which he raised the pyramids.

Mississippi

The river whose singing the speaker heard when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans.

Abe Lincoln

The person who went down to New Orleans, during which the speaker heard the singing of the Mississippi.

New Orleans

The city Abe Lincoln traveled to according to the speaker's account of the Mississippi.

Pyramids

The structures the speaker raised above the Nile.

Ancient rivers

Rivers described as being as old as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

Dusky

An adjective used alongside 'ancient' to describe the rivers the speaker has known.

The speaker's soul

Something described as having grown deep like the rivers.