I’m a bit late on Black History Month, but I feel like this is such a well written poem and piece of history that should not be forgotten. History, all parts of history, is what keeps us from repeating mistakes. Everyone should learn about our history. The good and the bad.
The Bitter River
Langston Hughes
(Dedicated to the memory of Charlie Lang and Ernest Green, each
fourteen years old when lynched together beneath the Shubuta Bridge
over the Chicasawhay River in Mississippi, October 12, 1942.)
There is a bitter river
Flowing through the South.
Too long has the taste of its water
Been in my mouth.
There is a bitter river
Dark with filth and mud.
Too long has its evil poison
Poisoned my blood.
I’ve drunk of the bitter river
And its gall coats the red of my tongue,
Mixed with the blood of the lynched boys
From its iron bridge hung,
Mixed with the hopes that are drowned there
In the snake-like hiss of its stream
Where I drank of the bitter river
That strangled my dream:
The book studied—but useless,
Tool handled—but unused,
Knowledge acquired but thrown away,
Ambition battered and bruised.
Oh, water of the bitter river
With your taste of blood and clay,
You reflect no stars by night,
No sun by day.
The bitter river reflects no stars—
It gives back only the glint of steel bars
And dark bitter faces behind steel bars:
The Scottsboro boys behind steel bars,
Lewis Jones behind steel bars,
The voteless share-cropper behind steel bars,
The labor leader behind steel bars,
The soldier thrown from a Jim Crow bus behind steel bars,
The 15¢ mugger behind steel bars,
The girl who sells her body behind steel bars,
And my grandfather’s back with its ladder of scars
Long ago, long ago—the whip and steel bars-
The bitter river reflects no stars.
“Wait, be patient,” you say.
“Your folks will have a better day.”
But the swirl of the bitter river
Takes your words away.
“Work, education, patience
Will bring a better day.”
The swirl of the bitter river
Carries your “patience” away.
“Disrupter! Agitator!
Trouble maker!” you say.
The swirl of the bitter river
Sweeps your lies away.
I did not ask for this river
Nor the taste of its bitter brew.
I was given its water
As a gift from you.
Yours has been the power
To force my back to the wall
And make me drink of the bitter cup
Mixed with blood and gall.
You have lynched my comrades
Where the iron bridge crosses the stream,
Underpaid me for my labor,
And spit in the face of my dream.
You forced me to the bitter river
With the hiss of its snake-like song—
Now your words no longer have meaning—
I have drunk at the river too long:
Dreamer of dreams to be broken,
Builder of hopes to be smashed,
Loser from an empty pocket
Of my meagre cash,
Bitter bearer of burdens
And singer of weary song,
I’ve drunk at the bitter river
With its filth and its mud too long.
Tired now of the bitter river,
Tired now of the pat on the back,
Tired now of the steel bars
Because my face is black,
I’m tired of segregation,
Tired of filth and mud,
I’ve drunk of the bitter river
And it’s turned to steel in my blood.
Oh, tragic bitter river
Where the lynched boys hung,
The gall of your bitter water
Coats my tongue.
The blood of your bitter water
For me gives back no stars.
I’m tired of the bitter river!
Tired of the bars.
1942
(Hughes, Langston. “The Bitter River.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1 Modern Poetry, 3rd ed., edited by Jahan Ramazani, et al., W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2003, pp. 694-696.)
*********************Analysis********************
Langston Hughes’s “The Bitter River” is a poem written in 1942 about oppression and racial stigma against African Americans. The poem is dedicated to two fourteen-year-old boys, Charlie Lang and Ernest Green, who were lynched together under a bridge over the Chicasawhay River in Mississippi, October 12th, 1942. “The Bitter River” serves as a metaphor for oppression of African Americans in the United States. In Hughes’s “The Bitter River,” the speaker is tired of oppression, manipulation, imprisonment, and segregation all because of skin color; the speaker uses metaphor to show what oppression feels like, it’s poisoned him, and he sees how oppression leads to corruption, the loss of dreams, imprisonment, and manipulation.
In the poem, metaphor is used to show how oppression for African Americans leads to sadness and corruption. The speaker starts straight off with the first metaphor:
There is a bitter river
Flowing through the South
Too long has the taste of its water
Been in my mouth…
Dark with filth and mud…
Poisoned my blood. (1-8)
“Bitter river” is a metaphor for oppression. The speaker is saying that injustice is flowing or oppression is flowing through the South. This river is poison and it’s inside him because he drank from this river, or he’s swallowed all the hurt, stigma, and killings he’s seen and heard about. These things have made him angry, sad, and hopeless, and this is the poison he talks about. It’s his lost dreams and the injustice he’s seen. As the speaker moves along, he talks about night and day: “You reflect no stars by night, / No sun by day” (23-24). These lines are a metaphor meaning no hope. The river reflects no light, because the river soaks up all the light. The river takes the light and doesn’t return it, as a reflection does. This then means that the river only gives off darkness, and hope cannot be seen in darkness. So, there is no hope in the bitter river.
In the poem metaphor is used to show how oppression for African Americans leads to the loss of ambitions and dreams. The speaker starts by saying how he drank from the river:
And its gall coats the red of my tongue,
Mixed with the blood of the lynched boys
From its iron bridge hung,
Mixed with the hopes that are drowned there… (10-13)
He is saying that bile coats his mouth along with the blood of lynched boys because if he’s tasting from the river, figuratively, and the boys were hung from the bridge over the river, then their blood mixed with the water of the river. The speaker is figuratively drinking from the river, so he is also tasting the blood of the lynched boys. He also says that any hopes and dreams the lynched boys had died in the river and that it is also in the bile in his mouth. The speaker then goes onto how drinking from the river affected him:
That strangled my dream:
The book studied—but useless,
Tools handled—but unused,
Knowledge acquired but thrown away,
Ambition battered and bruised, (16-20).
For the speaker, oppression strangles and destroys dreams. Dreams end up “useless,” “unused,” and “thrown away.” Even if an African American studies hard or is good with tools, it doesn’t matter because oppression will hold them back. The river drowns dreams. Oppression takes away hopes and ambition.
In the poem metaphor is used to show how oppression for African Americans leads to imprisonment. The speaker starts by talking about how imprisonment and oppression of African Americans leads to being behind bars and the river reflects this sadness and corruption:
The bitter river reflects no stars—
It gives back only the glint of steel bars
And dark bitter faces behind steel bars
The Scottsboro boys behind steel bars, (25-28)
Once again, the speaker is saying that there is no hope and he’s now showing the consequences of having no hope with “steel bars” being repeated. The repetition is there to add power to those words but also the meaning behind them is that these people are in prison. There is no hope in prison. They’re angry and probably getting angrier. “The Scottsboro boys” are referring to nine African American teenagers who were lynched and imprisoned in 1931 for the supposed rape of two white women. The State of Alabama continued to prosecute members of the group even after the Supreme Court overturned the decision (footnote). These boys were between the ages of 12 to 19 years old. The speaker continues with his list of corruption: “Lewis Jones behind steel bars… / The soldier thrown from a Jim Crow bus behind steel bars, / The girl who sells her body behind steel bars” (29-33). Lewis Jones was a British novelist imprisoned for his involvement in the Communist Party in 1926. Jim Crow refers to racial segregation laws from 1877 to 1950’s. Then the girl is a prostitute or accused of being a prostitute. Lewis Jones is in prison for accusations of being a communist, a soldier is in prison for sitting in the wrong section of a bus, and a girl is in prison for prostitution either because she had no other choice or she was raped. The speakers last lines in this stanza that finish the list of corruption actually finishes where it started: “And my grandfather’s back with its ladder of scars, / Long ago, long ago—the whip and steel bars— / The bitter river reflects no stars” (34-36). The speaker talks about his grandfather having scars that look like a ladder on his back. The ladder reference is because they are lines made straight across from being whipped over and over. Some call it a ladder others may call it train tracks, but either way they’re horizontal lines going up his grandfather back. They also remind the speaker of steel bars or prison bars. Then the last line is a repeat of line 25. There is no hope only anger and hopelessness. There can be no reflection in darkness.
In the poem metaphor is used to show how oppression for African Americans leads to being lied to and manipulated by white Americans. In this stanza the speaker is having a conversation with a white man who keeps telling the speaker to bide his time and be patient that his time will come eventually. The white man gets inpatient and gets angrier with each line: “the swirl of the bitter river” (40,44,48). Here the speaker repeats these words three times, and repetition is being used along with metaphor. After each of these repeated lines the speaker says a line with another repetition: “Takes your words away…/ Carries your “patience” away…/ Sweeps your lies away” (41,45,49). Again, there is metaphor along with the repetition of the word away in each of these lines, but that’s not the only thing that’s interesting about these lines. The speaker is talking about false hope of lies by white Americans. The “swirl” of the river or oppression by the white American, “takes,” “carries,” and “sweeps” all hope for the African American of a better life away. As the speaker moves along, the speaker uses metaphor and repetition with the word “force” or “forced:” “Yours has been the power / To force my back to the wall / And make me drink of the bitter cup” (54-56). The repetition is seen a few lines down when the speaker talks about his dreams and the bitter river:
Underpaid me for my labor,
And spit in the face of my dreams.
You forced me to the bitter river
With the hiss of its snake-like song, (58-62).
Here we get the word “force” repeated. In the both quotes the speaker is saying that the white man is forcing oppression upon him and all African Americans. He is also saying that there is no way of escaping this forced oppression. The “snake-like song” is almost like the white man is putting the African American under a spell. Almost like the pied piper in the fairy tales and the people following him after the song to the river. They are being called to the river figuratively to drink and literally they are being forced into oppression by white Americans because African Americans at that time didn’t have enough power.
Hughes wrote “The Bitter River,” a poem about oppression, that reads like there is no hope and that dreams are lost. I think the opposite is true because of this poem and other works like this. This poem written in 1942 is still being read today in 2021, and we are still learning from it today. We learn what life was like back when Hughes wrote the poem and compare it to how things are now. We think how much things have changed and how somethings haven’t changed. Hopefully, someday when I have grandchildren and they are in college they will read this poem and things will be better than they are now and that would make them that much better than 1942.
Hughes, Langston. “The Bitter River.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1 Modern Poetry, 3rd ed., edited by Jahan Ramazani, et al., W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2003, pp. 694-696.
Please share any thoughts you may have on this poem. I would love to hear them.
Michele
