The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes

The poem 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' is the earlier production of Langston Hughes' poetic career. He was only eighteen years old and a recent graduate from high school. He wrote this poem on a train while he was going to Mexico to live with his father. When the train was crossing the Mississippi River, the sun was setting, and the poet was attracted by the beauty of the sight. He was reminded of its role in thriving and sustaining human civilization, along with its role in slavery and the slave trade in America. He had a long journey ahead of him. He took out an envelope containing his father's letter, and at the back of it he drafted the poem within ten to fifteen minutes.

Sociolinguistics and The Sociolinguistic Development of the Child

I defined sociolinguistics as 'the study of language in relation to society', implying (intentionally) that sociolinguistics is part of the study of language. Thus, the value of sociolinguistics is the light which it throws on the nature of language in general, or on the characteristics of some particular language. As we might expect, students of society have found that facts about language can illuminate their understanding - after all, it is hard to think of any characteristic of a society which is as distinctive as its language, or as important for its functioning. 'The study of society in relation to language' (the converse of our definition of sociolinguistics) defines what is generally called THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE.