Choose one of the following devices, identify where it is in the poem, and explain how it adds to the poem's meaning: metaphor, imagery, or personification.
[If you are the first person for this post, your task is different. You get to answer these 5 literal-level questions so that everyone who follows you understands what's literally happening in the poem: 1 - Where is the slave when the poem begins? and What is his physical condition?; 2 - What/where is his "Native Land"?; 3 - Stanzas 2 - 7 all take place where?; 4 - What do lines 17-18 reveal about the slave? (how are these lines different from the rest of the stanzas surrounding them?; 5 - Why didn't the slave "feel the driver's whip" (last stanza)?]
In the beginning of the poem, he is in a rice field and his physical condition is very poor. His native land is the African country of Niger. In Stanzas 2 through 7 the story takes place in Africa. Lines 17 and 18 reveal that the slave is asleep in the field and very sad. These lines are different from the ones surrounding because they take place in the rice field and they show his emotions about his situation and what he had. In the last Stanza, the poem reveals that the slave has died because of his injuries caused by the slaver's whip.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the 7th stanza in The Slave's Dream, the author writes that the slave "started in his sleep and smiles at their tempestuous glee." In this poem, sleep is a symbol of peacefulness and freedom from reality. For the slave, there is more freedom and peace in death, so as he falls into his 'sleep', he is dying. Due to his terrible conditions, this is a relief to him, which is shown when he smiles at their 'tempestuous glee'. Tempestuous means a conflicting emotion, and death can be associated with this because of its pure uncertainty. For the slave, anything is better than the life he is living. This is why he has a sense of 'glee', or happiness when he is finally free.
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