"The Negro Speaks of rivers" by Langston's Hughes

the speaker shows that his soul has grown deep like rivers when he recounts the experiences that connect him to his heritage.

According to the eNotes Study Guide, the author, Langston Hughes, was crossing the Mississippi River on a trip and thought about the connection between his soul, the souls of his ancestors, and the rivers they'd lived around. This connection to his past makes his soul deeper and more complete.

Each river he names has a connection to his heritage.

Explanation:

Langston Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” names four rivers: The Euphrates, The Congo, The Nile, and The Mississippi. In the poem, rivers are used to convey racial memory across millennia of history. Let’s explicate the relevant portion of the poem with attention to the significance of each river. The first river named is The Euphrates, in the Middle East.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

The Euphrates River is in Mesopotamia and is often referred to as the cradle of civilization. The world’s earliest writing was recorded by the early Mesopotamians, and Hughes’s use of this ancient river roots his poem in the earliest beginnings of human experience and communication. Hughes’s next line shifts the generational memories explicitly to Africans.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.