“Languages” opens with both a declaration and a warning: “There are no handles upon a language” (Line 1). In opening the poem with this bold statement, the speaker immediately draws the reader’s attention to both language’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness, both of which will feature throughout the poem. The greatest strength of language is its dynamism—the very fact that it eludes “handles” allows it to develop and change over time as a living force in human society. However, this same lack of “handles” also means that language ultimately evades preservation, and therefore, forfeits its only means of survival: Since men cannot “take hold of it” (Line 2), it is therefore impossible to “mark it with signs for its remembrance” (Line 3). The duality of this situation creates the tension that lies at the very heart of language and human communication more generally.

The speaker then compares language to “a river” (Line 4), which will become the dominant symbol in the poem. In choosing the symbolism of the river, the speaker emphasizes the key qualities that a language always possesses while in active use: fluidity and dynamism, the ability to change direction or form when necessary, and the ability to link different places and people through its presence, just as a river can connect diverse areas of terrain.