Chapter 15
poem number fifteen of thirty american poems by various the negro speaks of rivers by lyston hughes this librivox recording is in the public domain i've known rivers i've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood and 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 this recording is in the public domain