Skip to content

— Phillis Wheatley

GRIM monarch! see, depriv'd of vital breath,

A young physician in the dust of death:

Dost thou go on incessant to destroy,

Our griefs to double, and lay waste our joy?

…

Read full poem →

verb

To try not to meet or communicate with (a person); to shun

Know more →

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

13 lines
Langston Hughes·1902–1967
✦
'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 rivers.
 
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
✦