Langston Hughes Rivers Quotations

Lawrence has a wonderful hill in it, with a university on top and the first time I ran away from home, I ran up the hill and looked across the world: Kansas wheat fields and the Kaw River, and I wanted to go some place, too. I got a whipping for it.

I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.

The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!