The Slave’s Dream Response

    The slave's dream is evidently about a slave who is sleeping and dreams about his old life before being captured. During this dream the life of this slave is freed, escaping from the clasp of slavery by death. While the slave slept, he dreamt about his old life as king, his wife and his children. The speaker of this poem is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His audience's are possibly to his wife and children telling them of the happy thoughts this man had in the course of his peaceful death. The audience could also to be all others who don't believe they could be freed from an inescapable situation. The tone of the poem is empathetic because it seemed as though the author was feeling the same things the character was feeling through the author's syntax. With denotative devices one can determine that the author also sympathized with the character while the character dreamt about his once loved family; but also was exhilarated by the liberation of this characters soul.

The author also uses a lot of figurative devices. Literal or concrete imagery is figurative device used to generate a mental impression created by direct description. Longfellow uses a lot of these types of imagery when he described the slave's flight to this haven. "At night he heard the lion roar, and the hyena scream, and it passed like a glorious roll of drums…" (Longfellow). The author used metaphor when saying "…his lifeless body lay a worn-out fetter…" (Longfellow). Personification, another figurative device used by the author is also made useful in "…death illumined the land of sleep…" (Longfellow),"The forests, with their myriad tongues shouted of liberty…" and "… and the blast of the desert cried aloud, with a voice so wild and free…" (Longfellow). The last of all figurative devices used in this poem is symbolism. For example Longfellow uses a worn out fetter to symbolize the bond life had on his soul to slavery, it also symbolizes a hold life had on the slave's happiness and freedom.

In this poem, the author appeals to pathos or the emotions of the reader. For instance the author says "They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks, thy held him by the hand!—a tear burst out of the sleeper's eyelids and fell into the sand." The author uses denotative language like kissed, held, tear, burst and fell to appeal to the reader's emotions. As said previously the author in correspondence to his use of syntax is indirectly in control of the reader's mood. The author lets us feel, with his use of literal imagery, what the character is feeling. In doing this he imposes his tone in the reader and we feel what the author wants the reader to feel.

The theme of the poem is that one always has a haven waiting for them. All has a haven, even if it's as simple as sleep or as complicated as death. This was a reoccurring theme throughout the poem. At the begging the author starts the poem with the character asleep, dreaming about his family and feeling happy; letting go of all inhibitions. At this moment the slave was free. Free of slavery, free of pain and free from loneliness. While the character was asleep he was pulled in a flight to a permanent haven; a flight drifting away finding permanent freedom.