The Negro Speaks of Rivers lyrics

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.

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.