Definitely Not A River of Dreams

"The Bitter River" is as important to society as Hughes' more popular "Dream Deferred" poems. Here he eloquently uses the metaphor of the bitter, muddy river to channel his continuing outrage and weariness with the continued racial and social injustice in the South. Written when he was 40, this is perhaps a follow up to his earlier "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," written when he was just 17. The river has changed from one that can "turn all golden in the sunset," (Speaks. Line 8), to one that reflects "no stars by night, no sun by day," (Bitter. Line 23-24). It is immediately apparent that the optimism of his youth has been eroded by the river of oppression, ironically grown stronger since the abolishment of slavery.
With it's dedication to two young black boys who were lynched, Hughes is obviously addressing racial injustice in its overt, physical, violent form. The poem is enclosed by the reference to this violence in the dedication and the last stanza. Hidden within the violence, Hughes is lamenting about the more subtle social injustice he is seeing. He uncovers it in many places. He tells us in lines 16-20 that although blacks might be allowed an education, it is useless as it will never get to be put to use. Although they may be trained in certain vocations, the training is moot as nobody will hire them.
The third stanza is really the heart of this piece. With their false promises of better days through patience, hard work, and education (lines 38-43), the wealthy, white ruling class is merely patronizing blacks. Hughes knows this, but when he speaks out, he is labeled "Disruptor! Agitator! Troublemaker!" By pointing out the social injustice, he runs the risk of becoming a victim of the violence of racial hatred. He ends the stanza with a wholly depressing thought. Because blacks have been allowed certain liberties and freedoms, they have once again become bound to the rules and suppression that whites have imposed on them. Instead of being slaves in a physical sense, they are socially enslaved. If they question their "freedom" they are considered ungrateful troublemakers.
In the fourth stanza, by repeating over and over how tired he is: of dreams broken, of hopes dashed, of imprisonment, of patronization, of segregation, of being poor; he paints a picture of a man (and a race) that feels utterly defeated. The tragedy is that Hughes offers no hope of redemption or change within this work. One cannot but be moved by the despair in those last two lines, again repeating tired, tired. He is a broken man who has lost the one last thing that a human has to cling to when everything else in the world has been taken from him: hope.