Analysis of The Slave In The Dismal Swamp
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp
The hunted Negro lay;
He saw the fire of the midnight camp,
And heard at times a horse's tramp
And a bloodhound's distant bay.
Where will-o'-the-wisps and glow-worms shine,
In bulrush and in brake;
Where waving mosses shroud the pine,
And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine
Is spotted like the snake;
Where hardly a human foot could pass,
Or a human heart would dare,
On the quaking turf of the green morass
He crouched in the rank and tangled grass,
Like a wild beast in his lair.
A poor old slave, infirm and lame;
Great scars deformed his face;
On his forehead he bore the brand of shame,
And the rags, that hid his mangled frame,
Were the livery of disgrace.
All things above were bright and fair,
All things were glad and free;
Lithe squirrels darted here and there,
And wild birds filled the echoing air
With songs of Liberty!
On him alone was the doom of pain,
From the morning of his birth;
On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth!
Scheme | XABBA CDCCD EFEEF GHGGH FIFFI JKJJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01110101 010101 110101011 01110101 001101 111010111 010001 11010101 00101001001 110101 110010111 1010111 1010110101 110010101 1011011 01110101 110111 1110110111 001111101 00100101 11010101 110101 11010101 011101001 111100 110110111 1010111 11010111 110110101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 135 Views
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"The Slave In The Dismal Swamp" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18915/the-slave-in-the-dismal-swamp>.
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