Rationale

 

The 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 veins.

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

 

 

I too, Sing America 

By Langston Hughes

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

Andgrowstrong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Theme for English B

The instructor said,

Go home and write

a page tonight.

And let that page come out of you--

Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?

I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.

I went to school there, then Durham, then here

to this college on the hill above Harlem. 

I am the only colored student in my class.

The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,

through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,

Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,

the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator

up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me 

at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what 

I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:

hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.

(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

I like a pipe for a Christmas present,

or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.

I guess being colored doesn't make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.

So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white. 

But it will be

a part of you, instructor. 

You are white-- 

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. 

That's American.

Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. 

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that's true! 

As I learn from you, 

I guess you learn from me-- 

although you're older--and white-- 

and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

For further information

The Harlem Renaissance -