Such company, such company,

As keeps this young nymph, Joy!

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS

(To W. E. B. DuBois)

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.