The Slave's Dream - by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Slave's Dream

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

   

        The poem “The Slave's Dream” is written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  he became a professor at Baudoin and later at Harvard College. Longfellow wrote many lyric poems which was known for their musicality and stories of mythology and legend. I have studied this poem in my graduation. 

      At that time the understanding of poem was just a part of my emotions, but now I can apply some theories and terms like colonialism and Nativism with some elements of excile. 

The Slave's Dream

Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
  His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
  Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
  He saw his Native Land.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
  The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
  Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
  Descend the mountain-road.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
  Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
  They held him by the hand!--
A tear burst from the sleeper's lids
  And fell into the sand.
And then at furious speed he rode
  Along the Niger's bank;
His bridle-reins were golden chains,
  And, with a martial clank,
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel
  Smiting his stallion's flank.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
  The bright flamingoes flew;
From morn till night he followed their flight,
  O'er plains where the tamarind grew,
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts,
  And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar,
  And the hyena scream,
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds
  Beside some hidden stream;
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,
  Through the triumph of his dream.
The forests, with their myriad tongues,
  Shouted of liberty;
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.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
  Nor the burning heat of day;
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!

Here is the beautiful video of poem with lyrics

      

         

        In the poem “The Slaves Dream” he has represented the condition of slave. Poem has a Nigerian slave as a protagonist. He saw a dream on lying on sand, that he finally went to his motherland and met his children and wife. He realized freedom in his dream but still there was a golden chain which was not allowing him to fly. In his dream he was flying and during his ride he saw the Nigerian river flowing, palm-trees and mountains which suggest peace and freedom. He also saw the forest where they have shouted for liberty but now he was a slave.

     

       The slave has saw his family, motherland and smiled in his dream, but when he remembered the condition of his family without him and now he was a slave, he started crying in his dream. He was beaten by his master and all those painful memories have overpowered him. The slave was in dream and his master came. He saw that the slave is sleeping and he started beating him. The slave was not able to feel the whip because he has left the world of reality. He was dead. His body was lifeless and his soul was broken.

   

     H. W. Longfellow has presented the desires of freedom by a slave and harsh reality of his life in reality that he is not able to free himself from slavery in dream also. The condition of sold slave and his life was like animal, even an animal can rebel and harm the master but slaves were not able to do that. At the end death has freed the soul from the body of slavery, but the soul was broken.