Hughes wrote this poem in one breath while driving to Mexico. He himself said it took "ten minutes to a quarter of an hour". When talking about the writing process of this poem, the poet said that he did not understand his father's thoughts from his "strange dislike" of his compatriots, because "I am black and I like black people very much". Then, the poet talked about the train slowly passing through the iron bridge on the Mississippi River. From this ancient river, he thought of the fate of the black people, President Lincoln personally went down to New Orleans on a raft to abolish slavery, and thought of other rivers of black people's past lives-Congo River, Niger River and Nile River in Africa. This is how poetry was born. After reading the whole poem, it is not difficult to see that the poet described the whole history of civilization from "Pangu opened the sky" to African ancestors until he became African-American. Black people are an ancient race. They worked hard on the earth and made contributions to human history. Although this poem does not directly describe the sufferings and struggles of black people, it can arouse their national pride and pride, arouse their desire for freedom and enhance their confidence in fighting for a better future. This poem is concise, deep and slow, but it contains unfathomable power.
Hughes' poems draw nutrition from black music and folk songs, and integrate the rhythm of jazz into free verse, so his poems are as open, stretched and enthusiastic as jazz. His poetry is fresh in style and profound in artistic conception, with shocking and touching power, which has had a great influence on the development of modern American black literature and African black poetry.
At the same time, he was also influenced by American poet walt whitman. Walt whitman's "I Hear America Singing" led Hughes to write "Me too, Singing America", which described the position of black people in the United States. In the poem, Hughes compares black people to brothers that white people don't like. When guests come, they will go to the kitchen for dinner. But they will become powerful silently. One day, they will eat at the dinner table with their white brothers, and at the same time, they will show people how shocking he is.