Drawing of the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississipi River in Minneapolis (United States)

Mississippi is like my mother. I am allowed to complain about her all I want, but God help the person who raises an ill word about her around me, unless she is their mother too.

Kathryn Stockett

Hannepin Avenue Bridge over the Mississipi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States)

I live by the sea, but the body of water I have the most feeling about is the Mississippi River, where I used to row and skate, ride on the ferry in childhood, watch the logs or just dream.

Susan Glaspell

Hernando de Soto Bridge across the Mississipi River between Memphis and New Memphis, Tennessee (United States)

Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me
Yeah, I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be
Then I'm walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?

Walking in Memphis 

Lyrics by Mar Cohn

Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River between Moline (Illinois) and Bettendorf (Iowa) in United States

By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois, 

O'er thy prairies verdant growing, Illinois, Illinois,

Comes an echo on the breeze. 

Rustling through the leafy trees, and its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois,

And its mellow tones are these, Illinois.

Poem Illinois 

 by C.H. Chamberlain

Horace Wilkinson Bridge over the Mississipi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (United States)

My clothes are wet, tight on my skin

Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in

I know that fortune is waiting to be kind

So give me your hand and say you'll be mine

Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay

You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way

Only one thing I did wrong

Stayed in Mississippi a day too long.

Mississipi

Song by Bob Dylan

Third Avenue Bridge across the Mississipi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States)

"The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise"

Mark Twain

Hannepin Avenue Bridge spanning the Mississipi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States)

The people lined the banks of the Mississipi
To watch Father Hennepin go over the edge
The people there that day, they all swear they say
Father Hennepin was laughing as he fell to his death.

The Hannepin Avenue Bridge

Song by Brian Setzer

Crescent City Connection over the Mississipi River in New Orleans, Louisiana (United States)

starving there, sitting around the bars,
and at night walking the streets for hours,
the moonlight always seemed fake
to me, maybe it was,
and in the French Quarter I watched
the horses and buggies going by,
everybody sitting high in the open
carriages, the black driver, and in
back the man and the woman,
usually young and always white.
and I was always white.
and hardly charmed by the world.
New Orleans was a place to hide.
I could piss away my life,unmolested except for the rats...

Young in New Orleans

Charles Bukowski