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THE SLAVE'S DREAM
"And in his dreams he saw his native land". This famous line
comes from this Henry Wordsworth Longfellow's poem of a slave who while working in a
foreign place in slavery, remembers his native land, and then dreams that he
is back in his African country Niger.
Beside the ungathered rice he lay
His sickle in his hand
His chest 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' flank
Before him, like a blood red flag,
The bright flamingos flew,
From morn till night, he followed their flight
O'er the the plains where tamarind grew
Till he saw the roof of caffre huts,
And the ocean rose to view
At night he heard the lions 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 the day
For Death has illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away
Henry Wordsworth Longfellow
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