The Negro Speaks of Rivers

This poem speaks of African-American history. The rivers are something his ancestors have all been by from the time they were in the congo. He describes his soul "has grown deep like the rivers" in reference to his deep ancestry that goes back to "Euphrates when dawns were young"
to hearing the "singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans."

The goes along with the Harlem Renaissance and was written to explain how deep black culture goes back into the world. It describes how African American's race has been apart of things that people at the time weren't aware that African Americans were apart of the big picture that is "ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins."