Negro Speaks of Rivers

I\'ve known rivers:
I\'ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human rivers
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I\'ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset

I\'ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes