Part 1: “Yet Do I Marvel” contains many classical references. Look up the meaning of one of them. Explain what that reference contributes to your understanding of the poem. How does it relate to the overall message?

Part 2: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” also connects a people to a symbol that is timeless and ‘of the earth’. This is not the first work we’ve seen that discusses rivers. Water is a symbol in many works. Discuss how it appears in Hughes’s poem and in two other works we’ve read this term; what does water seem to represent in these works?