The Slave’s Dream .pdf

This poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is about a slave who, while being beaten, escapes into his own mind. He has a dream about his former life in Africa, and is then able to release his pain and die in peace.

1. POEM: The Slave’s Dream
POET: H.W Longfellow
CONCEPT: Slavery is a weed that
grows on every soil

The Slave who belonged to Africa was working in
America .As he was working in the field ,he was
tired from work and fell asleep. He saw his Native
land ‘Africa’ in his dream. He was the king of a
tribe of his land and heard the rich caravans
descend the mountain road. He missed his wife and
children , they clasped his neck, kissed his cheeks,
the intensity of his dream made him cry in his
sleep. Being a king , he rode a horse which wore a
bride reins at high speed and followed a blood-red
flamingoes from morning till night across the
plains, caffre huts and ocean. At night he could
hear the roaring of lion, screaming of hyena and
the sound of a river horse. Like a forest and desert,
he felt the freedom, which made him to smile in
his dream. Now he didn’t feel his master’s whip
and the burning heat of the sun, because through
his death the soul has broken the fetters of his body
and attained freedom.

2. The Fly
By
William Blake
"The Fly" is one of English Romantic poet
William Blake's visionary poems from Songs of
Experience the second volume of his
groundbreaking 1794 collection Songs of
Innocence and of Experience. The poem's
speaker "thoughtlessly" swats a fly, then
consoles himself by reflecting that his life and
the fly's are basically the same: both are short
and end in oblivion, so they might as well enjoy
themselves until death "brushes" them away.
However, this subtly ironic poem hints that the
speaker's views on life and death might be a
touch simplistic.