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Lesson Plan Two: Let the River Speak—Writing the Persona Poem

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.
-- Langston Hughes, From "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

From the earliest times, the river has been us and we have been the river. We have fished from its banks, swam in its cold currents of mountain snow, diverted its flows and eddies to spark a spring of corn and give families their drinking water. We have also saddled it with bridges, dammed it, harnessed it with powerplants.

The history of the river is a human history too and we can give the river a human voice to tell us its story. This is what your students will do in this lesson: explore the human history of the river and then write a persona poem about that history in the voice of the river. Defining river use in broad categories—such as farming, transportation, direct food and water source, and/or recreation—students will begin their exploration by creating a pictorial collage made of photo cut outs and illustrations depicting the ways in which humans have used rivers. Students will share their posters, and discuss the significance of humanity on rivers. As a culminating exercise, students will write their poems and let the river speak.

But before you go. . . you might want to take a moment and hear Langston Hughes discuss and recite his poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." From Salon.Com



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