A meaningful challenge. The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Black Panther are two poems that are fascinating to me and really have a message rather than in the past when I have just chosen a poem that seemed easy to memorize. Memorizing and becoming familiar with these two wonderful poems has taught me something not only about poetry but also about myself. First of all, Langston Hughes — the author of these two poems — is a wonderful poet who possesses an astounding way with words. His style and flow just melt onto the paper to create spectacular works of literature. I chose these poems for two reasons, one was that I love Langston Hughes’ fantastic writing style and two, these poems are very closely, if not directly, related to race struggles and the way the world was back when Langston Hughes was writing and living. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the poet talks about the dignity of his — and by extension most black peoples’ — soul. It is a simple poem with a much more complex meaning. In the second poem, Black Panther, Langston Hughes talks about his stance on the Black Panthers, and how he doesn’t approve of them, he feels they are a last resort for a desperate people looking for a truth to speak in the face of powerful violence and injustice. The truth they find however is still a lie, the truest of oldest lies, and through this he implies that vengeance will never overcome injustice. I loved committing these poems to memory and getting to know them better because it helped me see poetry in a whole new light and they also assisted me in finding a phenomenal poet with an extreme talent for words.