Keeping In-touch

After reading and discussing three of Langston Hughes' poems in class this week, we were asked what one of the themes he created was and how he used verisimilitude to foster his that theme. After thinking about all the poems collectively, I concluded that one theme was to stay connected to your roots and heritage. Hughes emphasizes his point of staying connected with your past in his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", when he writes "I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins"(Hughes). He is saying that he knows all this because he understands his ancestors, they have passed the knowledge down to him so he knows where they came from the the struggles they overcame ("human blood"). As the poem continues Hughes incorporates allusions such as the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and many more known rivers. His allusions create verisimilitude, which, in turn, help foster the theme. The rivers he has mentioned have all contributed to great historical events, for example the Euphrates is located in the area of the world where civilizations was first formed. In his poem "The Weary Blues" Hughes also establishes verisimilitude by using colloquialism and first person point of view. The colloquialism add to his theme of connecting to our heritage because he is writing in the way his people actually speak. And finally, the use of first person brings in a personal touch to his pieces which allow readers to understand that he, himself, believes in the importance of being in touch with your roots.