Thu February 2, 2012 Celebrating The Legacy Of Langston Hughes
NEAL CONAN, HOST: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in
Washington. From the Harlem Renaissance to black power, Langston
Hughes spoke to the life of African-Americans. The neglected son
of a famous abolitionist family, he immersed himself in books.
Eighteen years old and just out of high school, he saw sunset on
the muddy Mississippi from a train and wrote the poem that
introduced the world to Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of
Rivers." LANGSTON HUGHES: 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