Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Slave’s Dream” paints the picture of an exhausted slave resting on the ground of a rice field with his “sickle” in his hand, his work unfinished. His head has been in the same place so long, his hair is covered by the sand of the field, which is a symbol for death encroaching on him. As he lays near death, he dreams of his life in his homeland before he became enslaved. His life flashes before him one final time.
When the author describes the Niger River flowing through the land, the reader learns the dying man’s homeland is Africa. The line “Once more a king he strode” indicates he was a leader in his former life before he became a slave. In his subconscious state, he hears the sounds of the “tinkling caravans” as they travel through his homeland.
As the poem progresses, he sees a woman, his “queen,” with his children who adore him. They hold him in great esteem by holding his hand, kissing him, and clutching his neck. This brings the dying man to tears. Although he is dreaming, the tears escape his eyes and flow to the ground around his head.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
The dream continues with him riding his horse with purpose and exhilaration. He carries his warrior’s sword as he guides his horse with “golden chains as bridle-reins.” The beautiful sight of flamingos in flight fills his view as he rides across the land to the sea.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright flamingoes flew;
The auditory imagery of the next stanza indicates what he is hearing in his dream. He hears cries of the animals, and hears himself thrashing through reeds along the river. Longfellow describes the scene as one of freedom and triumph with the “glorious roll of drums.” This tone of the slave’s dream continues with his dreams of being free. He experiences the sights and sounds of the forests and desert of his homeland. His subconscious thoughts bring a smile to his face.
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,
With a voice so wild and free,
That he started in his sleep and smiled
At their tempestuous glee.
Finally, he dies and no longer feels the constraints of slavery. Although he died a broken man, his soul is finally free.
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
Monday, May 2, 2016
How would you paraphrase "The Slave's Dream" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
No comments:
Post a Comment