The Negro Speaks of Rivers

River have been a powerful force thoughout human history. Many earaly mythologies made the river a symbol of both life and death. It is easy to understand the reason for this since most of the gteat early civiliization grew up in river valleys. The Euphrates, which is the first of the rivers mentioned in the poem, helps to form Mesopotamia. The Nile, too, played a central role in early civiliztion.It ensured Egyptian prosperity.It can be a allusious to deep dusky rivers, the setting sun , sleep, and the soul, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is suffused with the image of death and, simutaneausly, the idea of deathlessness.I notice that the soul of the Negro in this poem goes back to the Euphrates , it goes back to a pre-" racial" down and a geography far from Africa that is identified with nethier blackness nor whiteness.